Never Wiped Out

A Reflection on the Second Reading for October 31st, 2021:
Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Hebrews
7.23-28

The priests of the first covenant were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office; but Jesus holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently he is able for all time to save those who approach God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, blameless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, he has no need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for those of the people; this he did once for all when he offered himself.

For the law appoints as high priests those who are subject to weakness, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.
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“All good things must come to an end.” I hear this expression and think two things: first, man, what a downer; and, second, I don’t believe it. 


Certainly, our relationships with many things in this world are punctuated with a full stop. Birthday cakes are eaten. Clothes wear out. Buildings crumble into rubble. People we love pass away from us into death.


But, here’s the truth: none of those things come to an end; they simply change and take on a new form. When a log burns up, the materials that made up the log do not vanish. They turn into ashes and gases we cannot see. The 18th century chemist (and Christian) Antoine Lavoisier called this the Law of the Conservation of Matter. 


So cakes become energy for our bodies, and rubble becomes clay (perhaps to become bricks again someday). The people we love, when they die, cast off their bodies. We miss the physicality of their presence in our lives, but what they were isn’t wiped out. Their bodies change form, and their spirits enter eternity because they were never of this world and therefore never subject to the Law of the Conservation of Matter. That is what we believe as Christians, or would believe if we were like Antoine Lavoisier.


So, here’s the expression I would use: All things of this world must change in form.


Okay, that was getting a bit heavy, so I’m going to move on.


This Sunday’s second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews compares the “former priests” of this world to Jesus, who is the high priest “exalted above the heavens.” The Levitical priests changed, one after another (because, as humans, they inevitably died), and the people they served started over with another priest. But Jesus, having conquered death, “always lives to make intercession” for us. Moreover, unlike human priests, Jesus has “no need to offer sacrifices day after day“ to atone for His sins and the sins of others because He is “perfect” and His sacrifice on the cross was a complete atonement for all sin forever.


Jesus is with us always. He walks with us on the road to salvation to its very end. We do not perceive Him with our eyes but His Spirit is with us because it is not of this world. And that will never change.




Donna Davis

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