Christ came as the high priest of the good things which are to be. Not with the blood of goats or calves, but with his own blood. – He entered the holy place once for all, and won our eternal salvation.
He did not enter a holy place fashioned by man, he entered heaven itself. – He entered the holy place once for all, and won our eternal salvation.
From the “Treatise on the Holy Spirit” by St. Basil of Caesarea (+379)
The type manifests things to come by imitating them, foreshadowing future events in order to make them understood. For example, Adam was a type of the One who was to come, the rock was a type of Christ, and the water that flowed from the rock was a type of the life-giving power of the Word, for the Lord said: If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. The manna typified the living bread that came down from heaven and the serpent fixed to the pole typified the saving Passion consummated upon the Cross, which is why all who looked at it were saved.
Similarly, the reason the story is told of the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt is that they prefigure those who are saved by baptism. The firstborn of the Israelites were saved in the same way as are the bodies of the baptized, since grace was given to those marked by the blood. For the blood of the lamb was a symbol of the first man who was created and who of necessity still exists in us, transmitted through succeeding generations until the end of the world.
The sea and the cloud had the immediate effect of producing faith because of the amazement they aroused, but in relation to the future they were types foreshadowing the grace to come. Who is wise enough to understand these things, to understand how the sea is a type of baptism because it separated the Israelites from Pharaoh just as baptism separates us from the tyranny of the devil? In its waters the sea destroyed the enemy and in baptism is slain our enmity with God. From those waters the people emerged unharmed, and we emerge from the waters of baptism as though we had died and come to life again, saved by the grace of him who called us. As for the cloud, that foreshadowed the gift of the Spirit, who cools the heat of the passions by the mortification of our body.
Musical Selection
Great High Priest, we view Thee stooping,
With our names upon Thy breast,
In the garden groaning, drooping,
To the ground with horrors pressed.
Weeping angels stand confounded,
To behold their Maker thus,
And can we remain unwounded,
When we know ’twas all for us?
On the cross Thy body broken,
Cancels every penal tie;
Tempted souls, produce this token
All demands to satisfy.
All is finished; do not doubt it,
But believe your dying Lord;
Never reason more about it,
Only take Him at His Word.
Lord, we fain would trust Thee solely;
’Twas for us Thy blood was spilt;
Bruised Bridegroom, take us wholly,
Take, and make us what Thou wilt.
Thou hast borne the bitter sentence
Passed on man’s devoted race;
True belief and true repentance
Are Thy gifts, Thou God of grace.
Collect
Almighty and eternal God, you have appointed your only-begotten Son the Redeemer of the world, and willed to be appeased by his Blood. Grant we beg of you, that we may worthily adore this price of our salvation, and through its power be safeguarded from the evils of the present life, so that we may rejoice in its fruits forever in heaven. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen. (Feast of the Precious Blood; Traditional)