Thursday 23 January 2025

Today is Thursday the 23rd of January in the 2nd week of Ordinary Time. Juliano Ravanello sings, Santo É O Senhor Nosso Deus: ‘Holy is the Lord Our God’. Today’s reading is from the Letter to the Hebrews. Hebrews 7:25-8:2 Consequently he is able for all time to save those who approach God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, blameless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, he has no need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for those of the people; this he did once for all when he offered himself. For the law appoints as high priests those who are subject to weakness, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect for ever. Now the main point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister in the sanctuary and the true tent that the Lord, and not any mortal, has set up. This reading describes Jesus as a priest – as one who intercedes between God and human beings, and one who offers sacrifice for sins. How do you feel about this way of describing Jesus? What might your reactions tell you about your attitude to “priesthood” and your attitude to Jesus himself? The reading also places Jesus at the centre of our lives, as a kind of pivotal point, the way we find God the Father, with the help of the Holy Spirit. Is that how you see Jesus? Is that the place you want him to have in your life? Jesus’s death and resurrection, his “once for all” offering on Calvary – once for all times, once for all peoples – is the single most important event in human history. Perhaps you can reflect on what this means to you as you hear the reading again. Remember the author’s “main point”: Jesus is at God’s right hand; always there, ready to save and to intercede for those who approach God through him. So why not pray now, confidently, to Jesus, for your deepest needs. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.