TKELLY Gethsemani Homily Retreat Saturday 210123
The first reading from Hebrews brings us into what may be the core of the Epistle, a
dense section that enters into the theology of Sacrifice, the unique sacrifice of the life
of Jesus that is our salvation.
The opening verses are a nostalgic remembrance of the beauty and richness of the
tabernacle that had been destroyed by the time this text was developed. The author
then offers the facts that when Jesus entered the temple, that is the eternal temple,
the presence of God, he did not need all the purifying rites of the blood of animals
and ashes of sacrifice but only his sacrificed blood Who through the eternal spirit
offered himself unblemished to God and so cleansed our consciences from dead
works to worship the living God.
To help us understand the passage it is important to remember that for the author
Religion, the acts of Religion, give us access to God. It is to bring the human person
into God’s presence. Religion is to bring us beyond the earthly temple which was
only a vague figure of the real Tabernacle. In addition for the author, there is no
religion without sacrifice. Access to God demands purity: Our sins must be atoned
for and we must be cleansed. On these principles the writer to the Hebrews goes on
to show that Jesus is the only High Priest who brings the sacrifice that can open the
way to God and that that sacrifice is Jesus Himself.
The coming of Jesus really brought humankind into the presence of God, because in
Him God entered the world of space and time in a human form and to see Jesus was
to see God. The superiority of the sacrifice of Jesus took the load of guilt from the
conscience of the person while the sacrifices of the old convent had to do with bodily
uncleanness. The sacrifice of Jesus brought eternal redemption and the grace to live
in the presence of God. Jesus on Calvary was not a prescribed ritual; it was a
matter of Jesus obeying the will of God for the sake of all of us. Behind it there was
not a law but the choice of love.
(To be faithful to a promise I made to my Theology professor, Fr. Vianney, many,
many years ago, I will not try to offer any further insights into the mystery
Redemption and the Sacrifice of Jesus. After the written examination on the topic, Fr.
Vianney informed me that not only would he have to fail me, but also I would have to
take the Oath against modernism again and for the peace of his conscience I would
have to promise him that I would never preach my understanding of the mystery of
Redemption in public; so to our Gospel text!)
Our Gospel is actually shorter than it should be since at the end of this Chapter there
is an expansion of perhaps the same episode when the crowd tells Jesus that his
mother and brothers and sisters are asking for him. The family of Jesus thinks that
he is unbalanced. The second part of the scene which is not our reading today says
that no matter what the natural family thinks, the true family is the persons who do
the will of God.
The radically communal nature of discipleship is stressed by the incorporation into a
new family that does the will of God. Therefore doing the will of God and becoming a
member of Jesus family is in the most radical sense being and willing like Jesus to
accept even suffering and rejection as willed by God. Solidarity with Jesus in
suffering makes a person into a brother, sister or mother to Jesus who himself is
truly son when he can address God with faith and trust before the impending cross.
Such solidarity involves membership in a new family not determined by blood ties but
by the shedding of the blood of Christ.
We have reflected on these Scripture texts in the context of the celebration the
Eucharist. In the Eucharist we enter into the whole mystery of Jesus’ life death and
resurrection not as spectators but as participants – we follow Jesus in the mystery of
life and carrying the cross and entering death to receive the fullness of life in
resurrection. In celebrating the Eucharist we are proclaiming our willingness to give
our life for the sake of others.