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Question 

Dear Father Angelo, 

I wish you a happy New Year. I’d like to ask you why Jesus is called “high priest” in St. Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews. 

Thank you and have a good night. 

Nicholas 

Answer

Dear Nicholas, 

  1. In the Holy Scriptures – and above all in the Epistle to the Hebrews – we are clearly told about Christ’s priesthood, in fact He’s called high priest. Here’s some excerpts: “Therefore, 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.” (Hebrews 4, 14-16).
  2. A priest’s mission is two-pronged: bringing God’s gifts to men and bringing men’s prayers and sacrifices to God. It is also remembered in the Epistle to the Hebrews: “Every high priest is taken from among men and made their representative before God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.” (Hebrews 5, 1). So, a priest needs firstly to be taken from among men, not from among Angels. Indeed, his mission is to represent them in front of God. He’s their mediator.
  3. Jesus is a perfect mediator because He represents men, as He’s made of human nature. But, being God, in His human nature there is the connection with God. Christ has been a priest since the first moment of His life. All His actions are offered to His Father on behalf of men and He has brought God’s gifts to men since the first moment of His conception.  
  4. The priest represents men in front of God by offering sacrifices. This is the main mission of a priest. There’s no priesthood without sacrifice. The sacrifice Christ offers for men is His own sacrifice. On Calvary, He is priest and sacrificial victim at the same time. During the most important event of His priesthood, Jesus brought God’s gifts to men – which were made visible through blood and water flowing from His pierced side while He was on the Cross. That blood and that water represent grace and the sacraments.    
  5.  Here is how St. Thomas demonstrated that Jesus is a priest: “ The office proper to a priest is to be a mediator between God and the people: to wit, inasmuch as He bestows Divine things on the people, wherefore “sacerdos” [priest] means a giver of sacred things [sacra dans], according to Malachi 2:7: “They shall seek the law at his,” i.e. the priest’s, “mouth”; and again, forasmuch as he offers up the people’s prayers to God, and, in a manner, makes satisfaction to God for their sins; wherefore the Apostle says (Heb. 5:1): “Every high-priest taken from among men is ordained for men in the things that appertain to God, that he may offer up gifts and sacrifices for sins.” Now this is most befitting to Christ. For through Him are gifts bestowed on men, according to 2 Pt. 1:4: “By Whom” (i.e. Christ) “He hath given us most great and precious promises, that by these you may be made partakers of the Divine Nature.” Moreover, He reconciled the human race to God, according to Col. 1:19,20: “In Him” (i.e. Christ) “it hath well pleased (the Father) that all fulness should dwell, and through Him to reconcile all things unto Himself.” Therefore it is most fitting that Christ should be a priest.” (Summa Theologiae, III, 22,1)
  6. As we already said, The Epistle to the Hebrews underlines that a priest offers  sacrifices and prayers to God for sins. So, the blood of Christ cleanses our conscience from the works of death, because we are serving the living God. (cfr. Hebrews 9, 13-14). And that’s how Christ’s sacrifice expiates sins. As St. Thomas wrote: “Two things are required for the perfect cleansing from sins, corresponding to the two things comprised in sin—namely, the stain of sin and the debt of punishment. The stain of sin is, indeed, blotted out by grace, by which the sinner’s heart is turned to God: whereas the debt of punishment is entirely removed by the satisfaction that man offers to God. Now the priesthood of Christ produces both these effects. For by its virtue grace is given to us, by which our hearts are turned to God, according to Rm. 3:24,25: “Being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, Whom God hath proposed to be a propitiation, through faith in His blood.” Moreover, He satisfied for us fully, inasmuch as “He hath borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows” (Is. 53:4). Wherefore it is clear that the priesthood of Christ has full power to expiate sins.” (Summa Theologiae, III, 22, 3).
  7. This is the truth behind the mass – which is the perpetuation of this sacrifice on our altars. Indeed, “The Sacrifice which is offered every day in the Church is not distinct from that which Christ Himself offered, but is a commemoration thereof. Wherefore Augustine says (De Civ. De. x, 20): “Christ Himself both is the priest who offers it and the victim: the sacred token of which He wished to be the daily Sacrifice of the Church.” (Summa Theologiae, III, 22, 3, ad 2).

Hoping that there are many people who perpetuate Jesus’ sacrifice on an altar for men, I bless you and I will keep you in my prayers. 

Padre Angelo 

Translated by Giulia Leo