Mercy and Sacrifice: A New and Eternal Covenant
Friday 21st March 2025Today, we continue our Jubilee of Jubilee series by further exploring the theme of mercy and forgiveness in relation to the Holy Year of Jubilee.
This theme dates back to the earliest days of Jubilee tradition, with scriptural roots taking us back to Leviticus and the Jewish festival of the Day of Atonement – the day on which the Year of Jubilee of was announced with the blowing of the Yobel horn.
The context of the passage, chapter 16 of Leviticus, reveals to us a God, who at the time of Moses and Aaron, was more separated from his people and to approach His presence in the Temple unworthily results in death: “Tell your brother Aaron not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain in front of the atonement cover on the ark, or else he will die, because I appear in the cloud above the atonement cover.” (Lev 16:2)
Instead, God reveals to Moses a new custom, in which the high priest would enter the Holy of Holies, passing through a veil that served to provide a shield between the presence of God and His people. Here, the high priest would offer a sacrifice and purify the Temple with the blood of the sacrifice, seeking forgiveness for the collective sins of the people.
Following this, the High Priest would take a live goat, confess over it the sins of the people, and send it away into the wilderness – taking the sins of the people away with it.
Finding Fulfilment in Christ
As we continue our journey through Lent, we turn our gaze and attention towards the cross.
Here we find some remarkable parallels from the Day of the Atonement in the Passion and sacrifice of Jesus: the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”
With these words, we acknowledge the fulfilment of this Old Testament feast in Christ – in his sacrifice on the cross and at each and every Mass – as described in the Letter to the Hebrews: “The Jewish High Priest goes into the Most Holy Place every year with the blood of an animal. But Christ did not go in to offer himself many times, for then he would have had to suffer many times ever since the creation of the world. Instead, now when all ages of time are nearing the end, he has appeared once and for all, to remove sin through the sacrifice of himself.” (Hebrews 10:25-27)
In this “new and eternal covenant”, the mercy and love of God is opened up for all; announced with the tearing of the Temple curtain and the removal of that physical divide between God and His people:
Now, God is visible. Accessible. Through Jesus – the true sacrifice – all obstacles to the Father’s love and mercy are removed as He literally shakes heaven and earth to restore His people to Himself once and for all.
A Continued Invitation
The tradition of announcing the Year of Jubilee on the Day of Atonement is an important reminder that this invitation to reconciliation is at the very heart of the holy year.
This invitation is not something confined to scripture but is an active invitation to each and every one of us through the living Sacraments of the Church: the Sacrament of Reconciliation and the Holy Eucharist.
Just as God opens Himself up to His people through the tearing of the Temple curtain, the spear that tore the flesh of Christ’s side opens up the true Holy of Holies: the Sacred Heart of Jesus, from which blood and water flow, establishing the sacramental life of our Church today.
As we continue our Jubilee of Jubilee series and our journey through Lent, we will continue to explore some of the ways God renews this invitation to us through the life of the Church today and how we can respond to his love and mercy in this holy year of Jubilee.
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