His Excellency,
The Most Reverend Edward K. Braxton, Ph.D., S.T.D.
Diocese of Belleville
Sermon:
Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time,
October 17, 2021,
St. Teresa Parish, Belleville
(This is the text as originally written. During the actual delivery, some passages were omitted and other comments were added spontaneously. Nota bene: This text has not been thoroughly proofread. Therefore, there may be errors in spelling, grammar and punctuation.)
"Letter to the Hebrews: Christianity and Judaism"
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ:
The Art of Letter Writing is a fascinating book which traces letter writing back to the Papyrus letters of the Egyptians 2,000 years before Christ; to the classic letter writing of 17th and 18th centuries, when prominent people wrote three or four drafts of their letters to get the wording and spelling just right before preparing the final version in thick black ink. They signed their names with a flourish and added their personal seal. People looked forward to receiving a letter with great anticipation and they saved the letters they received in special binders. The book says today the art of letter writing is rapidly disappearing. The sale of handsomely monographed stationary has declined. More and more people communicate largely by email or by brief text messages written in haste with no punctuations, spelling errors and quaint abbreviations, such as “how are you?” have become an R. and a U. Such communications are rarely signed!
What if you had to write an important personal letter to a dear friend, a devout Catholic, who is seriously considering leaving the Catholic Church because of the of the clergy abuse scandal or because your friend could no longer accept certain Catholic beliefs concerning the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, eternal life, abortion, or the meaning of human sexuality? How would you go about composing the letter? How would you structure it? What arguments would you use to persuade your friend to remain in the Church? Would you sign it or would you send it anonymously? Would it be a hasty email, or would it be a carefully crafted real letter on stationary?
Or, how would you feel if you received a special delivery letter containing extremely helpful and important information, but it was not signed? You would have no idea who it was from. You would find this rather frustrating, but you probably would not ignore its wise content. This is exactly the situation we find ourselves in this morning.
Our brief second reading is from a document originally called simply “to the Hebrews.” It is not clear which Hebrews are being addressed or who is writing to them. For a long time, early scholars thought it might have been written by St. Paul. But that idea has long since been rejected.
Most likely the letter fragment was written to a group of well-educated Jewish converts to Christianity who were beginning to doubt their faith and leaving the Christian community. Written in eloquent Greek, the letter is a complex and at times controversial argument that intends to show that Christianity is to be preferred to the faith of Judaism. It may have been written to persuade Jewish Christians, who lived in Jerusalem, to persevere in the face of persecution, at a time when some believers were considering turning back to Judaism to escape being persecuted for accepting Christ as their Savior. The theme of the text is the doctrine of the person of Christ and His role as mediator between God and man. While the logic of the letter can be difficult to follow, the author makes his devotion to Jesus Christ as the great and only high priest very clear. The writer argues forcefully that though Jesus was a layman and not a rabbi or a priest in the traditional sense, his Priesthood surpassed the high Priesthood of Moses’s brother Aaron and the tribe of Levi because of Jesus’ unique relationship to God the Father.
No other person in the bible is described as a “GREAT high priest.” The writer of Hebrews stresses that Jesus is the Son of the Father in a three-stage Christology: the pre-existing eternal Word of God, the human life of Jesus, and exaltation of the risen Christ after His Resurrection and Assentation to the throne of God.
Recall this morning’s reading:
“Since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens,
Jesus, the Son of God,
let us hold fast to our confession.
For we do not have a high priest
who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses,
but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin.
So let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy
and to find grace for timely help.”
Since Jesus lived a human life, He experienced the temptations of any human life. But because of His relationship with the Father, He did not yield to temptation. Jesus was genuinely tempted, yet without sin. This is born of the mystery of His humanity and divinity. God's throne of grace is, in reality, His seat of mercy. Jesus as our great high priest gives us the confidence to enter into God’s presence seeking mercy in a timely manner. The Hebrews are told to hold fast to their confession of faith and not to return to Judaism.
The argument of the writer of Hebrews concerning the relationship between Judaism and Christianity is to make clear to those who are thinking of returning to Judaism that Christ has fulfilled and even abolished the provisions of the Jewish law. The Church replaces Israel, as the People of God. Christianity is the fulfilment of Judaism.
This view in Hebrews led some Christians to conclude that Judaism should not have survived the emergence of Christianity, which is the fulfilment of the Jewish hope for the coming of the Messiah. This led to the controversial thinking of those who argue that Jewish people should find their new spiritual home in Christianity, which has surpassed Judaism. Some have cited this text to defend anti-Semitism and modern-day persecution of Jewish people by Christians. St. John Paul II, who had a special affection and concern for Jewish people because of his experience in Poland, argued forcefully that the Jewish Covenant continues to have abiding value even after the spread of Christianity. The question of the relationship between Christianity and Judaism continues to be debated today.
The letter to the Hebrews is an invitation to all Catholics to learn more about the relationship between Christianity and Judaism. Do you know any Jewish people? Do you have any Jewish neighbors? Have you ever visited a synagogue? Have you studied the teachings of the 2nd Vatican council acknowledging the wrongfulness of past negative attitudes of the Catholic Church towards Jewish people? The Vatican Council urges Catholics to embrace inter- faith dialogue and to seek out opportunities to get to know more about the religions of the world that are not Christ centered. In the end, however, the challenging letter to Hebrews has as its goal a deeper knowledge of Jesus Christ and a personal relationship with Him for every Christian.
* * * * * *
As we gather for the Eucharist this morning I remind you of the two great saints who had such a relationship with Christ, whom the Church is honoring. On Friday we honored the great St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), known as Theresa of Jesus, a Spanish mystic and reformer of the Carmelites with St. John of the Cross during the Protestant Reformation. She is the author of “The Interior Castle” and proclaimed the first woman doctor of the Church, by St. Paul VI in 1970. Her writings form part of the literary canon of Christian mysticism and Christian meditation practices, and continue to be studied by people around the world who seek spiritual renewal. Her great story reminds us of the extraordinary contribution Catholic women have made to the Church. Many Christians with a true desire to develop a living relationship with Jesus Christ , the great high priest, have found the writings of this great spiritual mystic a helpful guide for “confidently approaching the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.”
Tomorrow, Monday, we will honor St. Luke the evangelist, the author of the third gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, which means Luke wrote more than one fourth of the text of the New Testament, more than any other author. Luke is the only gospel writer who gives us the story of the birth of Jesus in a manger, surrounded by shepherds and the angels singing “Glory to God in the Highest”. St. Luke is patron saint of artists, physicians, surgeons, and farmers.
Theresa and Luke were deeply devoted to Jesus Christ. Theresa surely took inspiration from reading the Gospel of Luke and his Acts of the Apostle. She must have also pondered the Letter to the Hebrews. Luke was not one of the 12 apostles and we have no clear evidence that he ever met Jesus. He knew Jesus through his close relationship with St. Paul who encountered Jesus in a vision on the road to Damascus. These two great saints wrote with true insight about their faith in Christ just as the author of Hebrews did. Have you ever read this much-debated Letter to the Hebrews? It is quite brief. Why not read part of it today.
While you probably will not return to the classic tradition of lengthy, eloquent personal letter writing, do you think you might learn something about your interior life, if you were to draft a letter to your imaginary friend who is contemplating leaving the Church? Is your spiritual life deep enough to persuade your friend to confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help”?
St Teresa of Avila, pray for us.
St. Luke the Evangelist, Pray for us.
Praise be Jesus Christ. Both now and forever. AMEN.