Jesus Christ is the priest of the New and Eternal Covenant
"For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, man, Christ Jesus " (1 Tm 2, 5).
When we love someone very much, we want to be with him, we want to be close to him. We wish to see a loved one, hear, we want to talk to her often.
And God ? It seems so far away… He cannot be seen. And yet you can meet Him quite specifically. He took care of it first. Before we did, he wanted to meet us, just like that - humanly. How is it possible ? What God has done ?
Jesus Christ is the Mediator between God and people
St.. gives the answer to your question : „… Christ appeared as high priest […] not by the blood of goats and bulls, but by his own blood he entered the Holy Place once and for all, having obtained eternal redemption. […] The blood of Christ, which […] he offered himself to God as an undefiled sacrifice, it will cleanse your consciences […], that you may serve the living God. That is why he is the Mediator of the New Covenant […].
Christ did not enter the temple, built by human hands […], but to heaven itself, now to intercede for us before God " (Hbr 9, 11-15, 24). Jesus Christ comes to us as the High Priest, to make an offering. He himself is both the giver (sacrifice), as well as an offering. Jesus Christ, by shedding his blood on the cross, made a sacrifice and reconciled people with God. From then on, all people can be forgiven and return to God, whom they had forsaken because of sin. Jesus Christ is therefore the only Mediator of the New Covenant. Therefore, there is no other way for us to get to the Father, as only through Jesus Christ, our Mediator. And from God there is no other way to people, as only through Jesus Christ, An intermediary. All the gifts and favors of God come to us through our Savior, High Priest and Mediator of the New Covenant.
The author of Hebrews explains to us, that Christ is risen, exalted at the right hand of the Father, he is still our Mediator. He lives with the Father. He is always worshiping Him and interceding for us.
The Church always remembers this. How many times he prays to God, it always does so “through our Lord, Jesus Christ ".
Mediation of the Church
After his resurrection, Christ involved the Church in his mediation. Just as he himself was sent by the Father, so now she sends the Church to all people, to the whole world with the message of salvation. Once, Christ himself preached the Good News about God to people, the best Father - today he does it through the Church. People, who met Jesus of Nazareth, they were gifted with God's love - today those, who receive the holy sacraments in the Church, they are saved.
Christ made the Apostles the participants of his mission, and through them the bishops and their associates - priests. Today, bishops and their dependent priests share in the office of the one Mediator of Jesus Christ (by. KK 28). By virtue of this mission, they preach the word of God, they announce the Good News of salvation, and above all they exercise their mission in the Eucharist :
“In which, acting in the place of Christ and proclaiming His mystery, they unite the prayers of the faithful with the sacrifice of Him, who is their Head and make them present in the Mass. until the coming of the Lord, the only sacred sacrifice of the New Testament, namely, Christ, offering himself once to the Father as an immaculate sacrifice " (KK 28). The faithful, however, incorporated into the Church by baptism, they participate in the mediation of Christ by virtue of their royal priesthood. This participation is different from that of bishops and priests. They exercise their priesthood by participating in the Eucharistic sacrifice, by receiving the sacraments, prayer and thanksgiving, and especially by the testimony of a good life, by self-denial and active charity (by. KK 10).
How will I answer God ?
Now you understand, that we can actually meet the invisible God. While Jesus was on earth, people in him met the invisible God (by. J 14, 9). Today we meet the invisible God through Christ who lives in his Church : in his word and in the sacraments of St.. How you should be thankful to God for this ?
When during the Holy Mass. on the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, we read the words of the Letter to the Hebrews in the church, Christ resembles, that I too share in his mediation and that he calls me, that I may bring God closer to others. How I listen to the word of God ? Do I remember, that I am meeting with God then, that Christ is present in this word ? How do I get to the sacraments of St.. ? Do I then draw my whole soul closer to Christ? ? How I help other people come closer to God ? Don't I just think about my own salvation ?
■ Think:
1. How is the Old Covenant priesthood different from that of Christ? ?
2. When Jesus Christ turned out to be the only Mediator between God and people ?
3. What does it mean, that Jesus Christ is the eternal Priest and Mediator ?
4. Whom Christ chose to participate in his mediation ?
5. What is my task by participating in the mediation of the Church ?
■ Remember:
39. Who is the only Mediator and Priest of the New Covenant ?
The only Mediator and Priest of the New Covenant is Jesus Christ, incarnate Son of God.
40. Who Participates in Christ's Mediation ?
The Church instituted by him participates in Christ's mediation.
■ Task :
1. Read the preface on Christ, the Eternal Priest, and compare it with the present lesson.
2. Explain, why in the old paintings we see the figure of Jesus Christ on the cross, dressed in priestly vestments.
3. Why is the cross wearing a stole during Easter ?
4. Idea, how today you can mediate between God and your loved ones ?