Today's readings present Jesus as the high priest and mediator of a new and better covenant. He is everything for us: the priest and the victim and the altar and even the One to whom we offer praise and sacrifice. For, as even the evil spirits attest, he is the Son of God. No longer do we need sacrifices or sanctuaries or tabernacles or "gifts according to the law." These are, after all, only copies and shadows of THE REAL THING, the heavenly sanctuary opened up for us through the willingness of Jesus to die that we may live: "Here am I, Lord, I come to do your will." With these words Jesus fulfills the Old Covenant and becomes for us our peace and reconciliation, the forgiveness of all our sins, the priest "higher than the heavens," whose ministry is "so much more excellent" that the Law and the Prophets are no longer required. It is now a matter of a far better covenant, one of pure generosity, of Uncreated Grace. His one perfect sacrifice on the cross, his self-giving love, now fulfill all the purposes of human priesthood: for Humankind is once again made whole, made one with God. No further offering is needed.
So how do we respond to this unbelievable gift? What can we give back to the Lord for all that we have received? Just to give our hearts, to surrender our lives, to delight only in the Lord, to exult and be glad that the Lord is our salvation. Nothing more is required of us than that we embrace the gift of salvation and rejoice in God loving us. As Psalm 40 puts it so well, "May all who seek you exult and be glad in you, and may those who love your salvation say ever, THE LORD BE GLORIFIED."
Praise God alone in the Son "Who lives forever to make intercession for us," and in His Spirit without Whom we cannot even say, "Thank you." It is all God's work, and we are God's chosen ones, God's delight, God's precious and dearly beloved daughters and sons. Halleluiah!