The old covenant prefigures the new
1 The religion of the Law is only a shadow of the good things to come; it
has the patterns but not the realities. So, year after year, the same
sacrifices are offered without bringing the worshipers to what is the end.
2 If they had been cleansed once and for all, they would no longer have felt
guilt and would have stopped offering the same sacrifices.
3 But no, year after year their sacrifices witness to their sins
4 and never will the blood of bulls and goats take away these sins.
5 This is why on entering the world, Christ says: You did not desire
sacrifice and offering;
6 you were not pleased with burnt offerings and sin offerings.
7 Then I said: ※Here I am. It was written of me in the scroll. I will do
your will, O God.§
8 First he says: Sacrifice, offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you
did not desire nor were you pleased with them 每 although they were required
by the Law. 9 Then he says: Here I am to do your will.
9 This is enough to nullify the first will and establish the new.
10 Now, by this will of God, we are sanctified once and for all by the
sacrifice of the body of Christ Jesus.
11 So, whereas every priest stands daily by the altar offering repeatedly
the same sacrifices that can never take away sins,
12 Christ has offered for all times a single sacrifice for sins and has
taken his seat at the right hand of God,
13 waiting until God puts his enemies as a footstool under his feet.
14 By a single sacrifice he has brought those who are sanctified to what is
perfect forever.
15 This also was testified by the Holy Spirit. For after having de clared:
16 This is the covenant that I will make with them in the days to come 每
says the Lord 每 I will put my laws in their hearts and write them on their
minds.
17 He says: Their sins and evil deeds I will remember no more.
18 So, if sins are forgiven, there is no longer need of any sacrifice for
sin.
Be confident in God
19 So, my friends, we are as sured of entering the Sanctuary by the blood of
Jesus
20 who opened for us this new and living way passing through the curtain,
that is, his body.
21 Because we have a high priest in charge of the House of God,
22 let us approach with a sincere heart, with full faith, interiorly
cleansed from a bad conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
23 Let us hold fast to our hope with out wavering, because he who promised
is faithful.
24 Let us consider how we may spur one another to love and good works.
25 Do not abandon the assemblies as some of you do, but encourage one
another, and all the more since the Day is drawing near.
26 If we sin willfully after receiving knowledge of the truth, there is no
longer sacrifice for sin,
27 but only the fearful prospect of judgment and of fire which devours the
rebellious.
28 For whoever violated the law of Moses there is no mercy: is put to death
by the testimony of two or three per sons.
29 What, then, do you think it will be for those who have despised the Son
of God? How severely shall he be punished for having defiled the blood of
the covenant by which they were sanctified and for having insulted the
Spirit given to them?
30 For we know the One who says: Re venge is mine, I will repay. And also:
The Lord will judge his people.
31 What a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
32 Remember the first days when you were enlightened. You had to undergo a
hard struggle in the face of suffering.
33 Publicly you were exposed to humiliations and trials, and had to share
the sufferings of others who were similarly treated.
34 You showed solidarity with those in prison; you were dispossessed of your
goods and accepted it gladly for you knew you were acquiring a much better
and more durable possession.
35 Do not now throw away your confidence that will be handsomely rewarded.
36 Be patient in doing the will of God, and the promise will be yours:
37 A little, a little longer 每 says Scripture 每 and he who is coming will
come; he will not delay.
38 My righteous one will live if he believes; but if he distrusts, I will no
longer look kindly on him.
39 We are not among those who withdraw and perish, but among those who
believe and win personal salvation.
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Comments , Chapter 10
• 10.1 These paragraphs (10: 1-8) say that we passed from a religion where
everything is a continual beginning again to a new state where we are in the
definitive now. Here we have an aspect of the Christian faith that is not
easy to accept. Are we alone holding the definitive truth in the midst of so
many religions in which all presume to have the truth? Are we in a
definitive situation when every day we fall into the same sins? Are we the
definitive people of God when the Christian witness in the world is so far
from convincing? No one will answer our doubts on this point: our only hope
is to personally enter more deeply into the Christian experience.
If they had been cleansed once and for all (v. 2). If they multiplied
sacrifices for pardon, it proves that no one would have freed them of sin.
As for ourselves, do we not often receive the sacrament of pardon? How then
can we affirm that Christ＊s sacrifice has freed us?
The sacraments we receive 每 and the pardon we receive in the Church 每 are
never more than the application at the present moment of that which has been
done once and for all. For a baptized person, there is no further rite,
commitment, new baptism (baptism with a lot of water, baptism ※in the
spirit§＃) that can give more. All has been given in Jesus. John does not
hesitate to say that whoever is in Christ does not sin (Jn 3:6): he does not
commit a sin that leads to death (1Jn 5:17). Only sins that cause a total
rupture with Christ can bring us back to our former state of ※death.§
Although it is certain that confession is of great help to overcome sin, let
us not think a Christian continually passes from mortal sin to grace by
confessing, sinning again, and confessing again.
• 19. The paragraph 19-39draws the conclusion to what has just been said: if
we have entered the definitive now, beware of the real sin that would be to
lose hope. True sin is to lose the taste for what we have already partly
shared. The only remedy is to advance. Remember the word of St. Gregory: ※We
desire the pleasures of the world when we do not possess them, when we have
them we tire of them; as long as we have not discovered spiritual joy we do
not desire it, but we desire it in the same degree that we possess it.§
Do not abandon the assemblies (v. 25). When our hope is sick, we find
reasons for not attending our Sunday celebration or the assembly of the
community to which we belong. If it becomes general, the Christian community
falls apart. As for ourselves who are not angels, are we going to live
Christ if we have no community? In vain shall we be present with those who
do not share our faith in every kind of excellent activity; we will lack
what is essential: to be among them as witnesses to what they do not know.
A little longer (v. 37). This is taken from Habakkuk 2:3 and refers to the
judgment of God which is approaching. The author of the letter may have
wished to allude to the crisis that, very soon, was going to destroy the
Jewish nation.