Friday of the First Week of Lent (Hebrew 5:1-6)

5 For every high priest, being taken from among men, is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. ² The high priest can deal gently with those who are ignorant and going astray, because he himself is also surrounded with weakness. ³ Because of this, he must offer sacrifices for sins for the people, as well as for himself. ⁴ Nobody takes this honor on himself, but he is called by God, just like Aaron was. ⁵ So also Christ didn’t glorify himself to be made a high priest, but it was he who said to him,

“You are my Son.
    Today I have become your father.”

⁶ As he says also in another place,

“You are a priest forever,
    after the order of Melchizedek.”

Commentary

It was God himself who chose Aaron to be the high priest making it clear that the choice would not depend on the will of man but on the favour of God. None was to propose himself for the priesthood or take it upon himself: it was to be a heavenly vocation. The one who was to offer sacrifice for sins would be someone capable of sympathizing with sinners, aware, as Scripture says, that he too was beset by weakness. No one may confer the honour of the priesthood on himself; it is for the one called to it by God, as Aaron was. Even Christ did not arrogate the priesthood to himself; it was conferred on him. Since succession in the office of high priest was reckoned by descent from Aaron, those who were descended from him did not necessarily inherit his holiness. This is why Christ came as the fulfilment of what was foreshadowed in Melchizedek, the true king of peace; his very name means true king of holiness. He has no father, no mother, no genealogy; his years have no beginning, his life no end. All of this applies to the Son of God, who had no mother in his divine generation, no father when born of the Virgin Mary; begotten of the Father alone before time began, born of a virgin alone when he entered this world of time. Since there can be no doubt that he who is from eternity had no beginning, how can there be any ending for him who gives its being to everything that exists? He is truly the beginning and end of all things. These words also point to the ideal for every priest, namely, that he should be, as it were, without father or mother; that is, chosen not by reason of his aristocratic birth, but because of his moral integrity and outstanding virtue. (Ambrose of Milan)

The Author of this Letter introduced a new way of understanding the Old Testament as a Book that speaks of Christ. The previous tradition had seen Christ above all, essentially, in the key of the Davidic promise, the promise of the true David, of the true Solomon, of the true King of Israel, the true King since he was both man and God. And the inscription on the Cross truly proclaimed this reality to the world: now there is the true King of Israel, who is King of the world, the King of the Jews hangs on the Cross. It is a proclamation of the kingship of Jesus, of the fulfilment of the messianic expectation of the Old Testament which, at the bottom of their hearts, is shared by all men and women who await the true King who will bring justice, love and brotherhood.

However, the Author of the Letter to the Hebrews discovered a citation which until then had gone unnoticed: Psalm 110 [109]: 4 "You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek". This means that not only does Jesus fulfil the Davidic promise, the expectation of the true King of Israel and of the world, but he also makes the promise of the real Priest come true. In a part of the Old Testament and especially in Qumran there are two separate lines of expectation: of the King and of the Priest. In discovering this verse, the Author of the Letter to the Hebrews realized that the two promises are united in Christ: Christ is the true King, the Son of God in accordance with Psalm 2: 7, from which he quotes but he is also the true Priest.

Thus the whole of the religious world, the whole reality of sacrifices, of the priesthood that is in search of the true priesthood, the true sacrifice, finds in Christ its key, its fulfilment. And with this key it can reinterpret the Old Testament and show precisely that also the religious law abolished after the destruction of the Temple was actually moving towards Christ. Hence it was not really abolished but renewed, transformed, so that in Christ all things might find their meaning. The priesthood thus appears in its purity and in its profound depth.

In this way the Letter to the Hebrews presents the theme of the priesthood of Christ, of Christ the priest, at three levels: the priesthood of Aaron, that of the Temple; Melchizedek; and Christ himself as the true priest. Indeed, the priesthood of Aaron, in spite of being different from Christ's priesthood, in spite of being, so to speak, solely a quest, a journey in the direction of Christ, is nevertheless a "journey" towards Christ and in this priesthood the essential elements are already outlined. Then Melchizedek we shall return to this point who is a pagan. The pagan world enters the Old Testament. It enters as a mysterious figure, without father or mother the Letter to the Hebrews says it simply appears, and in this figure can be seen the true veneration of the Most High God, of the Creator of the Heavens and of the earth. Thus the pagan world too experiences the expectation and profound prefiguration of Christ's mystery. In Christ himself everything is recapitulated, purified and led to its term, to its true essence. (Pope Benedict XVI)

Musical Selection

Collect

Saturday of the First Week of Lent (Hebrews 5:7-14)

⁷ He, in the days of his flesh, having offered up prayers and petitions with strong crying and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and having been heard for his godly fear, ⁸ though he was a Son, yet learned obedience by the things which he suffered. ⁹ Having been made perfect, he became to all of those who obey him the author of eternal salvation, ¹⁰ named by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

¹¹ About him we have many words to say, and hard to interpret, seeing you have become dull of hearing. ¹² For although by this time you should be teachers, you again need to have someone teach you the rudiments of the first principles of the revelations of God. You have come to need milk, and not solid food. ¹³ For everyone who lives on milk is not experienced in the word of righteousness, for he is a baby. ¹⁴ But solid food is for those who are full grown, who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil.

Commentary

It was not while bare and not participating in the limits of his emptying that God the Word became our model, but "in the days of his flesh." Then, quite legitimately, he could employ  human limits and pray insistently and shed tears and even appear somehow to need a savior and learn obedience, those a Son.  The inspired author is, so to speak, stupefied by the mystery that the Son, existing by nature truly and endowed with the glories of divinity, should so abase himself that he endured the low estate of our impoverished humanity. But this was for us, as I have said, a fine and useful example. (Cyril of Alexandria)

Musical Selection

Collect