Fifth Sunday of the Great Fast: Our Venerable Mother, Mary of Egypt. Octoechos Tone 1; Synaxis of the Holy Archangel Gabriel.
Great Fast Day 35. Matins Resurrectional Gospel 9. The Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great is celebrated today.
Hebrews 9:11-14; Hebrews 2:2-10; Mark 10:32-45; Luke 10:16-21.
Read Hebrews 9:11-14
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
Priest: We offer to You, Yours of Your own, in behalf of all and for all.
All: We sing of You, we bless You, we thank You, O Lord, and we pray to You, our God.
With these words, in the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, people and priest offer to God something that is not theirs, but something that is already His: the sacrifice of His Son.
Today’s reading is about the meaning for us of that profound moment when what was already of His own – God the Son united with humanity – became His in sacrifice. Whereas the blood of sacrificed animals purified the flesh of defiled persons to approach God in worship and prayer, the blood of Christ offered through the Holy Spirit to God the Father “purifies our conscience from dead works.” Our offering “Yours of Your own” to God is so that we may participate in the Mystery of the Eucharist in order “to serve the living God.”
But when did Jesus Christ as High Priest, through His own blood, enter once for all into the Holy Place in the greater and more perfect tabernacle not of this creation? Not in the descent into Hades. Not in the resurrection. Not in the ascension. On the cross.
On the cross Christ was both the perfect sacrifice and the High Priest offering the perfect sacrifice. The cross was not a defeat but a sovereign act by God through the obedient agency of Jesus Christ and the disobedient agency of those who crucified Him. The cross is the place where Christ as High Priest physically and spiritually offered the sacrifice of Himself.
If God allows human agency to so afflict us as to be likened to being crucified, we do so united with One who reigns even there.