Memorial of Saint Agnes, Virgin and Martyr



“Every high priest is taken from among men and made their representative before God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.” (Hebrews 5:1.)

Pseudo-Dionysius, the Areopagite comments on this verse from the Reading proclaimed at Mass today:

The rites of consecration and those being consecrated denote the mystery that the performer of consecration in love of God is the exponent of the choice of the divinity. It is not by virtue of any personal worth that the hierarch summons those about to be consecrated, but rather it is God who inspires him in every hierarchic sanctification. Thus Moses, the consecrator in the hierarchy of the law, did not confer a clerical consecration on Aaron, who was his brother, whom he knew to be a friend of God and worthy of the priesthood, until God himself commanded him to do so, thereby permitting him to bestow, in the name of God who is the source of all consecration, the fullness of a clerical consecration. And yet our own first and divine consecrator — for Jesus in his endless love for us took on this task — “did not exalt himself,” as Scripture declares. Rather, the consecrator was the one “who said to him ... ‘You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.’” (Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, 5.)




“The author immediately gives one of the aspects of this mediation: the high priest must "offer sacrifices for sins." Sins, in fact, break off relations between humanity and God. The offering of sacrifice for sins is therefore a basic function of the exercise of a priestly mediation. Let us note that this offering has a double aspect: on the one hand, it is an act of worship made to God; on the other hand, it is at the same time an act of mercy on behalf of sinners. Therefore the aspect of the relation of Christ with humanity, which is the main aspect to be dealt with in this second section 4:15-5:10, cannot be dissociated from the aspect of its relation with God.” (Cardinal Albert Vanhoye, The Letter to the Hebrews: A New Commentary. Paulist Press 978-0809149285, page 100.)





Collect
Almighty ever-living God,
Who choose what is weak in the world
to confound the strong, mercifully grant,
that we, who celebrate the heavenly birthday
of Your martyr Saint Agnes,
may follow her constancy in the faith.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.


Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen