Friday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8.)

Origen of Alexandria (part 2 of Pope Benedict’s reflections on Origen) comments on these verses from the First Reading proclaimed at Mass today:

“And if “today” means the whole present age, “yesterday” is probably the bygone age. This what I have understood to be the meaning in the psalm and in Paul’s epistle to Hebrews. In the psalm it says: “A thousand years are in your eyes as a yesterday that has passed.” Whatever the much talked of millennium means, it is likened to yesterday as opposed to today. And in the apostle writes, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” No wonder that the whole of an age counts with God as the space of a single day with us, and I think even less.” (On Prayer, 27.)

“Here the author takes up the statement he made in part 1 of his homily, in 1:12: “You, you are the same,” and amplifies it by adding, “Yesterday and today the same, and forever” (13:8). That statement obviously applies to the glorified Christ; it does not apply to Christ before his glorification, for his incarnation had then brought him into a state of becoming. He had to be “made perfect” through his sufferings (2:10; 5:8-9; 7:28). But after that he was “crowned with glory and honor” (2:9); he is henceforth “priest forever” (7:16-25) and therefore constitutes for faith an eternally stable support.” (Cardinal Albert Vanhoye, The Letter to the Hebrews: A New Commentary. Paulist Press 978-0809149285, page 223.)

Collect

Grant us, Lord our God,
that we may honor You with all our mind,
and love everyone in truth of heart.
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

Top