“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 Old Testament was very attentive to the special relation of the high priest with God, and to achieve that better, it separated the high priest from other members of the people. Our author, on the contrary, insists on the links uniting the high priest with humankind; the link of origin: the high priest is “taken from among men;” the link of mission: “he is established for humankind.” It is only after these two references to humankind that God is named: the mission of the high priest concerns “the relations with God.” The perspective is clearly a perspective of mediation.” (Cardinal Albert Vanhoye, The Letter to the Hebrews: A New Commentary. Paulist Press 978-0809149285, pages 99-100.)
“The Old Testament was very attentive to the special relation of the high priest with God, and to achieve that better, it separated the high priest from other members of the people. Our author, on the contrary, insists on the links uniting the high priest with humankind; the link of origin: the high priest is “taken from among men;” the link of mission: “he is established for humankind.” It is only after these two references to humankind that God is named: the mission of the high priest concerns “the relations with God.” The perspective is clearly a perspective of mediation.” (Cardinal Albert Vanhoye, The Letter to the Hebrews: A New Commentary. Paulist Press 978-0809149285, pages 99-100.)
Collect
Almighty ever-living God,
Who govern all things,
both in heaven and on earth,
mercifully hear the pleading of Your people
and bestow Your peace on our times.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
Who govern all things,
both in heaven and on earth,
mercifully hear the pleading of Your people
and bestow Your peace on our times.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
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
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen
