Old Testament worshipers. From now on, our Christian life consists in appropriating and more deeply living the holiness we have already been given, not in acquiring a holiness we do not have (cf. 1 Cor 1:2; 6:11).17

Implications for the Common Priesthood of the Faithful

What implications does the doctrine of the priesthood found in Hebrews have for the common priesthood of the faithful? One line of reflection is suggested by the use of the key term "make perfect" (teleioo). Hebrews expresses the efficacy of Christ's sacrifice, strikingly, by using this term in a new way-now applied to his people! "For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified" (10:14; cf. 12:23). This suggests that the same three senses of teleioo applied to Christ also apply to those "many sons" whom Christ brings to glory: they are interiorly renewed and made totally blameless and upright, worthy to be offered in sacrifice to God; they are made capable of divine life; and they are ordained priests of the new covenant. Christ has changed his disciples from within, radically and permanently. The whole life of those who follow Christ is now qualified to be a priestly life, in which all our actions and sufferings can be offered as "a sacrifice of praise ... pleasing to God" (Heb 13:15-16), or as Paul exhorts us, "present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship" (Rom 12:1). Thus we are invited to "offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire" (Heb 12:28-29).

Christ's sanctification of his brothers and sisters brings about a change in one other aspect of the Old Testament priesthood. Whereas part of the Aaronic priest's function was to tightly control access to God so that the people would not be consumed by God's wrath, Christ's priestly function is precisely the opposite: he opens access to the Father. Formerly only the high priest would dare to enter the Holy of Holies, and only once a year; now all are invited in. Now that the worshipers have been made holy-assuming they are faithful to their baptismal consecrationthere is no danger in drawing near to the All-Holy. Rather, the constantly repeated exhortation in Hebrews is to approach God with confidence. "Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Heb 4:16). "A better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God" (7:19); we have "a hope that enters into the inner shrine behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf" (6:19-20).

17 See Benedict XVI's comments on baptism and confession in relation to the "bathing" and foot washing of John 13:10 in Jesus of Nazareth, Part II (San Francisco: Ignatius, 2011), 73.

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Christ's Priesthood and Christian Priesthood in the Letter to the Hebrews

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