Hebrews 7:11-28 Saint Fulgentius. Christ offered himself for us to God as a fragrant offering and sacrifice. Eph. 5:2

St. Fulgentius of Ruspe
8 entries in Monastic Lectionary

Night Office.

The Second Reading from John Henry Newman is from A WORD IN SEASON Readings for the Liturgy of New Edition  AUGUSTINIAN PRESS 2001 

The First Reading kept to the letter to the Hebrews and happily continues in the Breviary in the Fifth Week of Lent and Holy Week. 

The Second Reading escaped me. Later browsed Newman's P & P Sermon 1. 

Below the fuller text is in the "Read On" link.

Pursuing Hebrews,  the iBreviary, and its references, amplifies the commentary.

Day: Friday, 22 March 2013 From the letter to the Hebrews 7:11-28   The eternal priesthood of Christ   If perfection had been achieved through the levitical priesthood (on the basis of which the people received the law), what need would there have been to appoint a priest according to the order of Melchizedek, instead of choosing a priest according to the order of Aaron?.... SECOND READING  From a treatise on faith addressed to Peter by Saint Fulgentius of Ruspe, bishop (Cap. 22, 62: CCL 91 A, 726. 750-751) (This extract from a work written early in the sixth century contrasts the sacrifices of the Old Testament with the one all-sufficient sacrifice of Christ which they prefigured and of which the Church's sacrifice is a memorial offered in thanksgiving). Christ offered himself for us  The sacrifices of animal victims which our forefathers were commanded to offer to God by the holy Trinity itself, the one God of the old and the new testaments, foreshadowed the most acceptable gift of all. This was the offering which in his compassion the only Son of God would make of himself in his human nature for our sake. The Apostle teaches that Christ offered himself for us to God as a fragrant offering and sacrifice. He is the true God and the true high priest who for our sake entered once for all into the holy of holies, taking with him not the blood of bulls and goats but his own blood. This was foreshadowed by the high priest of old when each year he took blood and entered the holy of holies. Christ is therefore the one who in himself alone embodied all that he knew to be necessary to achieve our redemption. He is at once priest and sacrifice, God and temple. He is the priest through whom we have been reconciled, the sacrifice by which we have been reconciled, the temple in which we have been reconciled, the God with whom we have been reconciled. He alone is priest, sacrifice and temple because he is all these things as God in the form of a servant; but he is not alone as God, for he is this with the Father and the Holy Spirit in the form of God. Hold fast to this and never doubt it: the only-begotten Son, God the Word, becoming man offered himself for us to God as a fragrant offering and sacrifice. In the time of the old testament, patriarchs, prophets and priests sacrificed animals in his honor, and in honor of the Father and the Holy Spirit as well. Now in the time of the new testament the holy catholic Church throughout the world never ceases to offer the sacrifice of bread and wine, in faith and love, to him and to the Father and the Holy Spirit, with whom he shares one godhead. Those animal sacrifices foreshadowed the flesh of Christ which he would offer for our sins, though himself without sin, and the blood which he would pour out for the forgiveness of our sins. In this sacrifice there is thanksgiving for, and commemoration of, the flesh of Christ that he offered for us, and the blood that the same God poured out for us. On this Saint Paul says in the Acts of the Apostles: Keep watch over yourselves and over the whole flock, in which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as bishops to rule the Church of God, which he won for himself by his blood. Those sacrifices of old pointed in sign to what was to be given to us. In this sacrifice we see plainly what has already been given to us. Those sacrifices foretold the death of the Son of God for sinners. In this sacrifice he is proclaimed as already slain for sinners, as the Apostle testifies: Christ died for the wicked at a time when we were still powerless, and when we were enemies we were reconciled with God through the death of his Son.      http://www.ibreviary.com/m/opzioni.php. Fulgentius of Ruspe (462/467—527/533): On Faith, To Peter 22.62 (CCL 91A:726,750-751); from the Monastic Office of Vigils, Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent, Year I.  http://enlargingtheheart.wordpress.com/2011/04/07/fulgentius-of-ruspe-christ-offered-himself-for-us-to-god-as-a-fragrant-offering-and-sacrifice/ . + + +  http://www.newmanreader.org/works/parochial/volume1/sermon1.html Newman Parochial and Plain Sermons I, 6-7, 13-14.  Sermon 1. Holiness Necessary for Future Blessedness "Holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." Hebrews xii. 14. {1}  God works in and through us. - [hightlighted the Reading only]. IN this text it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit to convey a chief truth of religion in a few words. It is this circumstance which makes it especially impressive; for the truth itself is declared in one form or other in every part of Scripture.

St. Cyril of Alexandria - word of 'Fragrance’ Lent 5th Sunday

Nunraw March 2012

Night Office.

‘Fragrance’ word of St. Cyril of Alexandria.

At times the listening the Reading of the Second Nocturn suffers a deaf ear.

The only word picked up was ‘word’.

The about way of the Holy Spirit to prompted me back and read the lesson, -.
“offering himself to God the Father as a fragrant sacrifice for our sake,
“an appeasing fragrance, in the goat .., Christ is also symbolized...”,

FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT Year B

Gospel: John 12:20-33

“And when I am lifted up from the earth,

I shall draw all men to myself." (v33)

From a commentary on Numbers by Saint Cyril of Alexandria (Lib. 2: PG 69, 617-624)

Written sometime after 412, Cyril's "Glaphyra" or "polished explanations," from which this reading is taken, give an allegorical and typological exegesis of selected passages of the Pentateuch. This passage is a meditation on the mystery and paradox of Jesus' atoning death. It emphasizes our oneness with him. Christ, the grain of wheat that dies, is both the promise and sign of the future harvest.

As the firstfruits of our renewed humanity, Christ escaped the curse of the law precisely by becoming accursed for our sake. He overcame the forces of corruption by himself becoming once more free among the dead. He trampled death under foot and came to life again, and then he ascended to the Father as an offering, the firstfruits, as it were, of the human race. He ascended, as Scripture says, not to a sanctuary made by human hands, a mere copy of the real one, but into heaven itself, to appear in God's presence on our behalf He is the life-giving bread that came down from heaven, and by offering himself to God the Father as a fragrant sacrifice for our sake, he also delivers us from our sins and frees us from the faults that we commit through ignorance. We can understand this best if we think of him as symbolized by the calf that used to be slain as a holocaust and by the goat that was sacrificed for our sins committed through ignorance. For our sake, to blot out the sins of the world, he laid down his life.

Recognized then in bread as life and the giver of life, in the calf as a holocaust offered by himself to God the Father as an appeasing fragrance, in the goat as one who became sin for our sake and was slain for our transgressions, Christ is also symbolized in another way by a sheaf of grain, as a brief explanation will show.

The human race may be compared to spikes of wheat in a field, rising, as it were, from the earth, awaiting their full growth and development, and then in time being cut down by the reaper, which is death. The comparison is apt, since Christ himself spoke of our race in this way when he said to his holy disciples: Do you not say, "Four months and it will be harvest time?" Look at the fields I tell you, they are already white and ready for harvesting. The reaper is already receiving his wages and bringing in a crop for eternal life.

Now Christ became like one of us; he sprang from the holy Virgin like a spike of wheat from the ground. Indeed, he spoke of himself as a grain of wheat when he said: I tell you truly, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains as it was, a single grain; but if it dies its yield is very great. And so, like a sheaf of grain, the firstfruits, as it were, of the earth, he offered himself to the Father for our sake.

For we do not think of a spike of wheat, any more than we do of ourselves, in isolation. We think of it rather as part of a sheaf, which is a single bundle made up of many spikes. The spikes have to be gathered into a bundle before they can be used, and this is the key to the mystery they represent, the mystery of Christ who, though one, appears in the image of a sheaf to be made up of many, as in fact he is. Spiritually, he contains in himself all believers. As' we have been raised up with him, writes Saint Paul, so we have also been enthroned with him in heaven. He is a human being like ourselves, and this has made us one body with him, the body being the bond that unites us. We can say, therefore, that in him we are all one, and indeed he himself says to God, his heavenly Father: It is my desire that as I and you are one, so they also may be one in us.

Nunraw Passiontide Tabernacle

JESUS' HIGH-PRIESTLY PRAYER What is the meaning of the three sanctifications (consecrations)?

   

Monastic LENT READING.
An Excerpt from the Holy Father's new book.
"Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week -- From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection," 

"Sanctify them in the truth . . . ”

As a second theme, I should like to explore the idea of sanctification and sanctifying, which points strongly toward the connection with the event of atonement and with the high priesthood.

In the prayer for the disciples, Jesus says: "Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth .... For their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be consecrated in truth" (]n I7:17, I9). Let us also cite a passage from the controversy discourses that belongs in this context: here Jesus designates himself as the one sanctified and sent into the world by the Father (cf. 10:36). Hence we are dealing with a triple "sanctification": the Father has sanctified the Son and sent him into the world; the Son sanctifies

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himself; and he asks, on the basis of his own sanctification, that the disciples be sanctified in the truth.

What does it mean to "sanctify"? According to biblical understanding, sanctity or "holiness" in the fullest sense is attributable only to God. Holiness expresses his particular way of being, divine being as such. So the word "sanctify" (qadoš is the word for "holy" in the Hebrew Bible) means handing over a reality-a person or even a thing-to God, especially through appropriation for worship. This can take the form of consecration for sacrifice (cf. Ex 13:2; Deut 15:19); or, on the other hand, it can mean priestly consecration (cf. Ex 28:41), the designation of a man for God and for divine worship.

The process of consecration, "sanctification", includes two apparently opposed, but in reality deeply conjoined, aspects. On the one hand, "consecrating" as "sanctifying" means setting apart from the rest of reality that pertains to man's ordinary everyday life. Something that is consecrated is raised into a new sphere that is no longer under human control. But this setting apart also includes the essential dynamic of "existing for". Precisely because it is entirely given over to God, this reality is now there for the world, for men, it speaks for them and exists for their healing. We may also say: setting apart and mission form a single whole.

The connection between the two can be seen very clearly if we consider the special vocation of Israel: on the one hand, it is set apart from all other peoples, but for a particular reason-in order to carry out a commission for all peoples, for the whole world. That is what is meant when Israel is designated a "holy people".

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Let us return to John's Gospel. What is the meaning of the three sanctifications (consecrations) that are spoken of there? First we are told that the Father sent his Son into the world and consecrated him (cf. 10:3⁶). What does that mean? The exegetes suggest a certain parallel between this expression and the call of the Prophet Jeremiah: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations" (Jer 1:5)· Consecration means that God is exercising a total claim over this man, "setting him apart" for himself, yet at the same time sending him out for the nations.

In Jesus' words, too, consecration and mission are directly linked. Thus one may say that this consecration of Jesus by the Father is identical with the Incarnation: it expresses both total unity with the Father and total existence for the world. Jesus belongs entirely to God, and that is what makes him entirely "for all". "You are the Holy One of God", Peter said to him in the synagogue at Capernaum, and these words constitute a comprehensive Christological confession (Jn 6:69)·

Once the Father has "consecrated" him, though, what is meant when he goes on to say "I consecrate (hagiázõ) myself" (17: 19)? Rudolf Bultmann gives a convincing answer to this question in his commentary on John's Gospel. "Hagiázõ, put here in the farewell prayer at the beginning of the Passion, and used together with hypèr autõn (for them), means 'to make holy' in the sense of 'to consecrate for the sacrifice' "; Bultmann quotes in support a saying of Saint John Chrysostom: "I sanctify myself-I

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present myself as a sacrifice" (The Gospel of John, p. 510, n. 5; cf. also Feuillet, The Priesthood of Christ and His Ministers, pp. 35 and 44). If the first "sanctification" is related to the Incarnation, here (‘the second sanctification’, Edit) the focus is on the Passion as sacrifice.

Bultmann has presented the inner connection between the two "sanctifications" very beautifully. The holiness that Jesus received from the Father is his "being for the world", or "being for his own". His holiness is "no static difference in substance from the world, but is something Jesus achieves only by completing the stand he has made for God and against the world. But this completion means sacrifice. In the sacrifice he is, in the manner of God, so against the world that he is at the same time for it" (The Gospel of John, p. 5II). In this passage, one may object to the sharp distinction between substantial being and completion of the sacrifice: Jesus' "substantial" being is as such the entire dynamic of "being for"; the two are inseparable. But perhaps Bultmann meant this as well. He should, moreover, be given credit when he says of John ITJ9 that "there is no disputing the allusion to the words of the Lord's supper" (ibid., p. 5IO n. 5).

Thus, in these few words, we see before us the new atonement liturgy of Jesus Christ, the liturgy of the New Covenant, in its entire grandeur and purity. Jesus himself is the priest sent into the world by the Father; he himself is the sacrifice that is made present in the Eucharist of all times. Somehow Philo of Alexandria had correctly anticipated this when he spoke of the Logos as priest and high priest (Leg. All. III, 82; De Somn. I, 215; II, 183; reference

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found in Bultmann, ibid.). The meaning of the Day of Atonement is completely fulfilled in the "Word" that was made flesh "for the life of the world" (Jn 6:51).

Let us turn to the third sanctification that is spoken of in Jesus' prayer: "Sanctify them in the truth" (IT17). "I consecrate myself, that they also may be consecrated in truth" (17:19). The disciples are to be drawn into Jesus' sanctification; they too are included in this reappropriation into God's sphere and the ensuing mission for the world. "I consecrate myself, that they also may be con­secrated in truth": their being given over to God, their "consecration", is tied to the consecration of Jesus Christ; it is a participation in his state of sanctification.

Between verses I7 and I9, which speak of the conse­cration of the disciples, there is a small but important difference. Verse I9 says that they are to be consecrated "in truth": not just ritually, but truly, in their whole being this is doubtless how it should be translated. Verse 17, on the other hand, reads: "sanctify them in the truth". Here the truth is designated as the force of sanctification, as "their consecration".

According to the Book of Exodus, the priestly consecration of the sons of Aaron is accomplished when they are vested in sacred robes and anointed (29:1-9); the ritual of the Day of Atonement also speaks of a complete bath before the investiture with sacred robes (Lev I6:4)· The disciples of Jesus are sanctified, consecrated "in the truth". The truth is the bath that purifies them; the truth is the robe and the anointing they need.

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This purifying and sanctifying "truth" is ultimately Christ himself They must be immersed in him; they must, so to speak, be "newly robed" in him, and thus they come to share in his consecration, in his priestly commission, in his sacrifice.

Judaism, likewise, after the demise of the Temple, had to discover a new meaning for the cultic prescriptions. It now saw "sanctification" in the fulfillment of the commandments-in being immersed in God's holy word and in God's will expressed therein (cf Schnackenburg, The Gospel according to Saint John III, pp. 18Sf).

In the Christian faith, Jesus is the Torah in person, and hence consecration takes place through union of will and union of being with him. If the disciples' sanctification in the truth is ultimately about sharing in Jesus' priestly mission, then we may recognize in these words of John's Gospel the institution of the priesthood of the Apostles, the institution of the New Testament priesthood, which at the deepest level is service to the truth.