Sunday, March 15, 2009

Heb 7, 17-23 Jesus is the guarantee of a better covenant

(Heb 7, 17-23) Jesus is the guarantee of a better covenant
[17] For it is testified: "You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek." [18] On the one hand, a former commandment is annulled because of its weakness and uselessness, [19] for the law brought nothing to perfection; on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God. [20] And to the degree that this happened not without the taking of an oath - for others became priests without an oath, [21] but he with an oath, through the one who said to him: "The Lord has sworn, and he will not repent: 'You are a priest forever'" – [22] to that same degree has Jesus (also) become the guarantee of an (even) better covenant. [23] Those priests were many because they were prevented by death from remaining in office,
(CCC 616) It is love "to the end" (Jn 13:1) that confers on Christ's sacrifice its value as redemption and reparation, as atonement and satisfaction. He knew and loved us all when he offered his life (Cf. Gal 2:20; Eph 5:2, 25). Now "the love of Christ controls us, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died" (2 Cor 5:14). No man, not even the holiest, was ever able to take on himself the sins of all men and offer himself as a sacrifice for all. The existence in Christ of the divine person of the Son, who at once surpasses and embraces all human persons, and constitutes himself as the Head of all mankind, makes possible his redemptive sacrifice for all. (CCC 1476) We also call these spiritual goods of the communion of saints the Church's treasury, which is "not the sum total of the material goods which have accumulated during the course of the centuries. On the contrary the 'treasury of the Church' is the infinite value, which can never be exhausted, which Christ's merits have before God. They were offered so that the whole of mankind could be set free from sin and attain communion with the Father. In Christ, the Redeemer himself, the satisfactions and merits of his Redemption exist and find their effficacy" (Indulgentiarum doctrina, 5). (CCC 1477) "This treasury includes as well the prayers and good works of the Blessed Virgin Mary. They are truly immense, unfathomable, and even pristine in their value before God. In the treasury, too, are the prayers and good works of all the saints, all those who have followed in the footsteps of Christ the Lord and by his grace have made their lives holy and carried out the mission the Father entrusted to them. In this way they attained their own salvation and at the same time cooperated in saving their brothers in the unity of the Mystical Body" (Indulgentiarum doctrina, 5).

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