HEAVEN TOUCHING EARTH

I want to make use of a lens that I've used before to a look at a truth of our faith, namely our Judaeo-Christian religious tradition's foundational belief that heaven can touch earth. 

Jerusalem Temple

The God of the Israelites intervened in history at special moments to deliver the chosen people. As time went on, Judaism came to relive that "heaven touched earth" in more permanent ways. First, God was present in a unique and permanent way in the Jerusalem temple, and second the Lord was especially present in his Word, the Torah.  

We Christians have just finished celebrating the season of Christmas, the event in which heaven touched earth definitively, once for all, when God came became a human, "the Word became flesh" as a little baby. During the Christmas season the liturgy delighted us by unfolding various aspects of this mystery via the feasts of the Epiphany, the Holy Family, and the Baptism in the Jordan. 

Over the past week, the lectionary for daily mass has been presenting excerpts from the Letter to the Hebrews, actually a long sermon written to encourage Christians in the face of (if I might borrow from the U.S. Bishops' website) "a weariness with the demands of Christian life and a growing indifference to their calling (Heb 2:1; 4:14; 6:1–12; 10:23–32). The author’s main theme, the priesthood and sacrifice of Jesus (Heb 3–10), is not developed for its own sake but as a means of restoring their lost fervor and strengthening them in their faith."  

Here is the excerpt used in today's (Saturday's) mass: (Heb 9:2-3, 11-14)

A tabernacle was constructed, the outer one,

The Holy Place and the Holy of Holies

in which were the lampstand, the table, and the bread of offering; 

this is called the Holy Place.

Behind the second veil was the tabernacle called the Holy of Holies. 

But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that have come to be, 

passing through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made by hands, 

that is, not belonging to this creation, 

he entered once for all into the sanctuary, 

not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own Blood, 

thus obtaining eternal redemption.

For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of a heifer’s ashes 

can sanctify those who are defiled 

so that their flesh is cleansed, 

how much more will the Blood of Christ, 

who through the eternal spirit offered himself unblemished to God,

cleanse our consciences from dead works to worship the living God.

If we look at this passage through the lens of "heaven touching earth," we see Christ in his role of High Priest joining heaven to earth in still another way:

But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that have come to be, 

passing through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made by hands, 

that is, not belonging to this creation, 

he entered once for all into the sanctuary, 

not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own Blood, 

thus obtaining eternal redemption.

Christ the High Priest

Just as he joined heaven to earth at his incarnation, he does the same thing here. The Latin word for priest, pontifex, means literally "bridge-builder," one who bridges the gap between the human and the divine. As members of Christ's body, as sharers in his priesthood, we bridge the gap that once existed between heaven and earth.

The author of Hebrews, we're told above, uses this image of Christ the High Priest to encourage and strengthen the Christians of his day whose fervor was beginning to weaken. May this image of heaven touching earth strengthen and encourage you and me as well!