Friday, April 26, 2024

Mauro Gagliardi (RC) on Hebrews 13:10

 


The Letter to the Hebrews makes explicit the reference to the theme of the Sacrifice of Christ, calling the Eucharistic table an “altar.” In Hebrews 9, the author gives a summary of the ritual of Jewish sacrifice and then makes reference to Christ, Who enters into the Sanctuary with the blood of animals, but with His own blood and thus ratifies the perfect and eternal covenant through His sacrificial death (see Heb 9-10). Hebrews 13:10 affirms: “We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle [the Temple of Jerusalem] have no right to eat.” It is evident that the main direction of the text is not in reference to the Eucharist. It wants to show the difference, albeit in continuity, between Jewish Worship and Christian Worship, between belonging to the old People of God or to the new and, consequently, between frequenting the Temple and participating in the Christian Liturgy. (Mauro Gagliardi, Truth is a Synthesis: Catholic Dogmatic Theology [Steubenville, Ohio: Emmaus Academic, 2020], 787)