From: Hebrews 10:4-10
The Sacrifices of the Old Covenant Could Not Take Away Sins (Continuation)
Christ’s Offering of Himself Has Infinite Value
“Sacrifices and offerings Thou hast not desired,
but a body hast Thou prepared for Me;
[6] in burnt offerings and sin offerings Thou hast taken no pleasure.
[7] Then I said, ‘Lo, I have come to do Thy will, O God,’
as it is written of Me in the roll of the book.”
[8] When He said above, “Thou hast neither desired nor taken pleasure
in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered
according to the law), [9] then He added, “Lo, I have come to do Thy will.” He
abolishes the first in order to establish the second. [10] And by that will we have
been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
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Commentary:
2-4. These verses repeat what is said in verse 1 and in 9:12-13. “Tell me, then,
what is the point of having more victims and more sacrifices when a single victim
would suffice for atonement for sins [...]. Multiple sacrifices in effect show that
the Jews needed to atone for their sins because they had failed to find forgive-
ness: it points to the inefficacy of the victims offered, rather than to their power”
(Chrysostom, “Hom. on Heb.”, 17). The ultimate reason for this inefficacy is
explained by a striking statement: “It is impossible that the blood of bulls and
goats should take away sins” (v. 4). There is here an echo of those proclama-
tions of the prophets which reminded the people that true purification comes
not from external actions but from conversion of heart (cf. Jeremiah 2:22; 4:14;
11:15; Micah 6:7-8; Psalm 51:18-19; etc.).
And yet, is it not the case that the priests of the New Testament renew Jesus’
sacrifice in the Mass everyday? St. John Chrysostom answers: “Yes, that is
true, but not because we regard the original sacrifice, Christ’s sacrifice, as
ineffective or impotent. We priests repeat it to commemorate His death. We
have but one victim, Christ—not many victims [...]. There is but one and the
same sacrifice [...], one Christ whole and entire, here as elsewhere, the same
everywhere—the same Christ on all the altars. Just as Jesus Christ, although
offered in different places, has only one body, so everywhere there is but one
sacrifice [...]. What we do is a commemoration of Christ’s offering, for at the
Supper He said, ‘Do this in memory of Me.’ Therefore, we do not offer, as the
high priest of the Law did, a new, additional victim: it is not one sacrifice more,
but always the same one” (”Hom. on Heb.”, 17).
The Mass “is the sacrifice of Christ, offered to the Father with the cooperation
of the Holy Spirit—an offering of infinite value, which perpetuates the work of the
Redemption in us and surpasses the sacrifices of the Old Law. The holy Mass
brings us face to face with one of the central mysteries of our faith, because it
is the gift of the Blessed Trinity to the Church. It is because of this that we can
consider the Mass as the center and the source of a Christian’s spiritual life. It
is the final end of all the Sacraments” (St. J. Escriva, “Christ Is Passing By”,
86-87).
5-10. This passage carries a quotation from Psalm 40:7-8, but one taken from
the Greek translation, the Septuagint, not from the Hebrew. Where the Hebrew
says, “Thou hast opened My ears”, the Greek reads, “a body Thou hast prepared
for Me”. The difference is not substantial, because the Hebrew expression points
to the docility and obedience of the speaker, who is the Messiah Himself. The
Greek translation gives the sentence a more general meaning: God has not only
opened the ears of the Messiah; He has given Him life as a man (cf. Philippians
2:7). The words of this Psalm “allow us as it were to sound the unfathomable
depths of this self-abasement of the Word, His humiliation of Himself for love of
men even to death on the Cross [...]. Why this obedience, this self-abasement,
this suffering? The Creed gives us the answer: ‘for us men and for our salvation’
Jesus came down from Heaven so as to give man full entitlement to ascend (to
Heaven) and by becoming a son in the Son to regain the dignity he lost through
sin [...]. Let us welcome Him. Let us say to Him, ‘Here I am; I have come to
do Your will’” ([Pope] John Paul II, “General Audience”, 25 March 1981).
The author of the letter, elaborating on the text of the psalm, asserts that the
Messiah’s sacrifice is greater than the sacrifices of the Old Law, unbloody as
well as bloody, sin-offerings as well as burnt offerings as they were called in the
liturgy (cf. Leviticus 5;6; 7:27). The sacrifice of Christ, who has “come into the
world”, has replaced both kinds of ancient sacrifice. It consisted in perfectly
doing the will of His Father (cf. John 4:34; 6:38; 8:29; 14:31), even though He
was required to give His life to the point of dying on Calvary (Matthew 26:42;
John 10:18; Hebrews 5:7-9). Christ “came into the world” to offer Himself up to
suffering and death for the redemption of the world. “He knew that all the sacri-
fices of goats and bulls offered to God in ancient times were incapable of making
satisfaction for the sins of men; He knew that a divine person was needed to do
that [...]. My Father (Jesus Christ said), all the victims offered You up to this are
not enough and never will be enough to satisfy Your justice; You gave Me a body
capable of experiencing suffering, so that You might be placated by the shedding
of My blood, and men thereby saved; ‘ecce venio, here I am, ready’; I accept
everything and in all things do I submit to Your will. The lower part of His human
nature naturally felt repugnance and reacted against living and dying in so much
pain and opprobium, but its rational part, which was fully subject to the Father’s
will, had the upper hand; it accepted everything, and therefore Jesus Christ began
to suffer, from that point onwards, all the anguish and pain which He would under-
go in the course of His life. That is how our Divine Redeemer acted from the very
first moments of His coming into the world. So, how should we behave towards
Jesus when, come to the use of reason, we begin to know the sacred mysteries
of Redemption through the light of faith?” (St. Alphonsus, “Advent Meditations”,
II, 5).
The Psalm speaks of “the roll of the book”: this may refer to a specific book or
else to the Old Testament in general (cf. Luke 24:27; John 5;39, 46, 47).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
From: Luke 1:26-38
The Annunciation and Incarnation of the Son of God
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Commentary:
26-38. Here we contemplate our Lady who was “enriched from the first instant
of her conception with the splendor of an entirely unique holiness; [...] the virgin
of Nazareth is hailed by the heralding angel, by divine command, as ‘full of grace’
(cf. Luke 1:28), and to the heavenly messenger she replies, ‘Behold the hand-
maid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to thy word’ (Luke 1:38). Thus the
daughter of Adam, Mary, consenting to the word of God, became the Mother of
Jesus. Committing herself wholeheartedly to God’s saving will and impeded by
no sin, she devoted herself totally, as a handmaid of the Lord, to the person and
work of her Son, under and with Him, serving the mystery of Redemption, by the
grace of Almighty God. Rightly, therefore, the Fathers (of the Church) see Mary
not merely as passively engaged by God, but as freely cooperating in the work
of man’s salvation through faith and obedience” (Vatican II, “Lumen Gentium”,
56).
The annunciation to Mary and incarnation of the Word constitute the deepest
mystery of the relationship between God and men and the most important event
in the history of mankind: God becomes man, and will remain so forever, such
is the extent of His goodness and mercy and love for all of us. And yet on the
day when the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity assumed frail human nature
in the pure womb of the Blessed Virgin, it all happened quietly, without fanfare
of any kind.
St. Luke tells the story in a very simple way. We should treasure these words
of the Gospel and use them often, for example, practising the Christian custom
of saying the Angelus every day and reflecting on the five Joyful Mysteries of the
Rosary.
27. God chose to be born of a virgin; centuries earlier He disclosed this through
the prophet Isaiah (cf. Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:22-23). God, “before all ages made
choice of, and set in her proper place, a mother for His only-begotten Son from
whom He, after being made flesh, should be born in the blessed fullness of time:
and He continued His persevering regard for her in preference to all other crea-
tures, to such a degree that for her alone He had singular regard” (Pius IX, “Inef-
fabilis Deus,” 2). This privilege granted to our Lady of being a virgin and a mother
at the same time is a unique gift of God. This was the work of the Holy Spirit
“who at the conception and the birth of the Son so favored the Virgin Mother as
to impart fruitfulness to her while preserving inviolate her perpetual virginity” (”St.
Pius V Catechism,” I, 4, 8). Paul VI reminds us of this truth of faith: “We believe
that the Blessed Mary, who ever enjoys the dignity of virginity, was the Mother
of the incarnate Word, of our God and Savior Jesus Christ” (”Creed of the People
of God”, 14).
Although many suggestions have been made as to what the name Mary means,
most of the best scholars seem to agree that Mary means “lady”. However, no
single meaning fully conveys the richness of the name.
28. “Hail, full of grace”: literally the Greek text reads “Rejoice!”, obviously refer-
ring to the unique joy over the news which the angel is about to communicate.
“Full of grace”: by this unusual form of greeting the archangel reveals Mary’s
special dignity and honor. The Fathers and Doctors of the Church “taught that
this singular, solemn and unheard-of-greeting showed that all the divine graces
reposed in the Mother of God and that she was adorned with all the gifts of the
Holy Spirit”, which meant that she “was never subject to the curse”, that is, was
preserved from all sin. These words of the archangel in this text constitute one
of the sources which reveal the dogma of Mary’s Immaculate Conception (cf. Bl.
Pius IX, “Ineffabilis Deus”; Paul VI, “Creed of the People of God”).
“The Lord is with you!”: these words are not simply a greeting (”the Lord be with
you”) but an affirmation (”the Lord is with you”), and they are closely connected
with the Incarnation. St. Augustine comments by putting these words on the
archangel’s lips: “He is more with you than He is with me: He is in your heart,
He takes shape within you, He fills your soul, He is in your womb” (”Sermo De
Nativitate Domini”, 4).
Some important Greek manuscripts and early translations add at the end of the
verse: “Blessed are you among women!”, meaning that God will exalt Mary over
all women. She is more excellent than Sarah, Hannah, Deborah, Rachel, Judith,
etc., for only she has the supreme honor of being chosen to be the Mother of
God.
29-30. Our Lady is troubled by the presence of the archangel and by the confu-
sion truly humble people experience when they receive praise.
30. The Annunciation is the moment when our Lady is given to know the voca-
tion which God planned for her from eternity. When the archangel sets her mind
at ease by saying, “Do not be afraid, Mary,” he is helping her to overcome that
initial fear which a person normally experiences when God gives him or her a
special calling. The fact that Mary felt this fear does not imply the least trace of
imperfection in her: hers is a perfectly natural reaction in the face of the superna-
tural. Imperfection would arise if one did not overcome this fear or rejected the
advice of those in a position to help—as St. Gabriel helped Mary.
31-33. The archangel Gabriel tells the Blessed Virgin Mary that she is to be the
Mother of God by reminding her of the words of Isaiah which announced that the
Messiah would be born of a virgin, a prophecy which will find its fulfillment in
Mary (cf. Matthew 1:22-23; Isaiah 7:14).
He reveals that the Child will be “great”: His greatness comes from His being
God, a greatness He does not lose when He takes on the lowliness of human
nature. He also reveals that Jesus will be the king of the Davidic dynasty sent
by God in keeping with His promise of salvation; that His Kingdom will last for-
ever, for His humanity will remain forever joined to His divinity; that “He will be
called Son of the Most High”, that is that He really will be the Son of the Most
High and will be publicly recognized as such, that is, the Child will be the Son
of God.
The archangel’s announcement evokes the ancient prophecies which foretold
these prerogatives. Mary, who was well-versed in Sacred Scripture, clearly
realized that she was to be the Mother of God.
34-38. Commenting on this passage John Paul II said: “’Virgo fidelis’, the faithful
Virgin. What does this faithfulness of Mary mean? What are the dimensions of
this faithfulness? The first dimension is called search. Mary was faithful first of
all when she began, lovingly, to seek the deep sense of God’s plan in her and for
the world. ‘Quomodo fiet?’ How shall this be?, she asked the Angel of the
Annunciation [...].”
“The second dimension of faithfulness is called reception, acceptance. The ‘quo-
modo fiet?’ is changed, on Mary’s lips, to a ‘fiat’: Let it be done, I am ready, I ac-
cept. This is the crucial moment of faithfulness, the moment in which man per-
ceives that he will never completely understand the ‘how’: that there are in God’s
plan more areas of mystery than of clarity; that is, however he may try, he will
never succeed in understanding it completely[...].”
“The third dimension of faithfulness is consistency to live in accordance with what
one believes; to adapt one’s own life to the object of one’s adherence. To accept
misunderstanding, persecutions, rather than a break between what one practises
and what one believes: this is consistency[...].”
“But all faithfulness must pass the most exacting test, that of duration. Therefore,
the fourth dimension of faithfulness is constancy. It is easy to be consistent for
a day or two. It is difficult and important to be consistent for one’s whole life. It is
easy to be consistent in the hour of enthusiasm, it is difficult to be so in the hour
of tribulation. And only a consistency that lasts throughout the whole life can be
called faithfulness. Mary’s ‘fiat’ in the Annunciation finds its fullness in the silent
‘fiat’ that she repeats at the foot of the Cross” (”Homily in Mexico City Cathedral”,
26 January 1979).
34. Mary believed in the archangel’s words absolutely; she did not doubt as Ze-
chariah had done (cf. 1:18). Her question, “How can this be?”, expresses her
readiness to obey the will of God even though at first sight it implied a contradic-
tion: on the one hand, she was convinced that God wished her to remain a virgin;
on the other, here was God also announcing that she would become a mother.
The archangel announces God’s mysterious design, and what had seemed im-
possible, according to the laws of nature, is explained by a unique intervention
on the part of God.
Mary’s resolution to remain a virgin was certainly something very unusual, not in
line with the practice of righteous people under the Old Covenant, for, as St. Au-
gustine explains, “particularly attentive to the propagation and growth of the peo-
ple of God, through whom the Prince and Savior of the world might be prophesied
and be born, the saints were obliged to make use of the good of matrimony” (”De
Bono Matrimonii”, 9, 9). However, in the Old Testament, there were some who,
in keeping with God’s plan, did remain celibate—for example, Jeremiah, Elijah,
Eliseus and John the Baptist. The Blessed Virgin, who received a very special
inspiration of the Holy Spirit to practise virginity, is a first-fruit of the New Testa-
ment, which will establish the excellence of virginity over marriage while not ta-
king from the holiness of the married state, which it raises to the level of a sacra-
ment (cf. “Gaudium Et Spes”, 48).
35. The “shadow” is a symbol of the presence of God. When Israel was journey-
ing through the wilderness, the glory of God filled the Tabernacle and a cloud
covered the Ark of the Covenant (Exodus 40:34-36). And when God gave Moses
the tablets of the Law, a cloud covered Mount Sinai (Exodus 24:15-16); and also,
at the Transfiguration of Jesus the voice of God the Father was heard coming out
of a cloud (Luke 9:35).
At the moment of the Incarnation the power of God envelops our Lady — an ex-
pression of God’s omnipotence. The Spirit of God—which, according to the ac-
count in Genesis (1:2), moved over the face of the waters, bringing things to life
— now comes down on Mary. And the fruit of her womb will be the work of the
Holy Spirit. The Virgin Mary, who herself was conceived without any stain of sin
(cf. Pius IX, “Ineffabilis Deus”) becomes, after the Incarnation, a new tabernacle
of God. This is the mystery we recall every day when saying the Angelus.
38. Once she learns of God’s plan, our Lady yields to God’s will with prompt obe-
dience, unreservedly. She realizes the disproportion between what she is going
to become—the Mother of God—and what she is—a woman. However, this is what
God wants to happen and for Him nothing is impossible; therefore no one should
stand in His way. So Mary, combining humility and obedience, responds perfect-
ly to God’s call: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done according
to your word.”
“At the enchantment of this virginal phrase, the Word became flesh” (St. J. Escri-
va, “Holy Rosary”, first joyful mystery). From the pure body of Mary, God shaped
a new body, He created a soul out of nothing, and the Son of God united Himself
with this body and soul: prior to this He was only God; now He is still God but al-
so man. Mary is now the Mother of God. This truth is a dogma of faith, first de-
fined by the Council of Ephesus (431). At this point she also begins to be the spi-
ritual Mother of all mankind. What Christ says when He is dying—’Behold, your
son..., behold, your mother” (John 19:26-27)—simply promulgates what came
about silently at Nazareth. “With her generous ‘fiat’ (Mary) became, through the
working of the Spirit, the Mother of God, but also the Mother of the living, and, by
receiving into her womb the one Mediator, she became the true Ark of the Cove-
nant and true Temple of God” (Paul VI, “Marialis Cultus”, 6).
The Annunciation shows us the Blessed Virgin as perfect model of “purity” (the
RSV “I have no husband” is a euphemism); of “humility” (”Behold, I am the hand-
maid of the Lord”); of “candor” and “simplicity” (”How can this be?”); of “obedi-
ence” and “lively faith” (”Let it be done to me according to your word”). “Follo-
wing her example of obedience to God, we can learn to serve delicately without
being slavish. In Mary, we don’t find the slightest trace of the attitude of the foo-
lish virgins, who obey, but thoughtlessly. Our Lady listens attentively to what
God wants, ponders what she doesn’t fully understand and asks about what she
doesn’t know. Then she gives herself completely to doing the divine will: ‘Behold
I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word’. Isn’t
that marvellous? The Blessed Virgin, our teacher in all we do, shows us here that
obedience to God is not servile, does not bypass our conscience. We should
be inwardly moved to discover the ‘freedom of the children of God’ (cf. Romans 8:
21)” (St. J. Escriva, “Christ Is Passing By”, 173).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.