Hebrews 10:1-10
Brothers and sisters: Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of them, it can never make perfect those who come to worship by the same sacrifices that they offer continually each year. Otherwise, would not the sacrifices have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, once cleansed, would no longer have had any consciousness of sins? But in those sacrifices there is only a yearly remembrance of sins, for it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats take away sins. For this reason, when he came into the world, he said:
Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;
in burnt offerings and sin offerings
you took no delight.
Then I said, As is written of me in the scroll,
Behold, I come to do your will, O God.
First he says, Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings, you neither desired nor delighted in. These are offered according to the law. Then he says, Behold, I come to do your will. He takes away the first to establish the second. By this "will," we have been consecrated through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Dawg's thought:
Today's prayer intention is for an end to the use of contraception.
Today's reflection is from The New American Bible:
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Christian faith now realizes that the Old Testament sacrifices did not effect the spiritual benefits to come but only prefigured them. For if the sacrifices had actually effected the forgiveness of sin, there would have been no reason for their constant repetition. They were rather a continual reminder of the people's sins.
It is not reasonable to suppose that human sins could be removed by the blood of animal sacrifices. Christ, therefore, is here shown to understand his mission in terms of Psalm 40:5-7, cited according to the Septuagint. Jesus acknowledged that the Old Testament sacrifices did not remit the sins of the people and so, perceiving the will of God, offered his own body for this purpose.
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Take care and God Bless.
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