Letter to the Hebrews

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator

As I have mentioned before, my day begins with reading, reading from Scripture and from other sources as well. Today's venture into the printed word provided me with a veritable mine of precious stones to bring to prayer and meditation, so much so that I couldn't possibly comment on everything in this particular blog entry. However, I do want to say something about the Letter to the Hebrews.

In the Lectionary for Mass, Weekday Cycle 1, the first four weeks of Ordinary Time are devoted to reading the Letter to the Hebrews. Because Lent begins rather early this year, it will occupy our liturgy almost right up to Ash Wednesday.

The Letter to the Hebrews is an important part of the Christian Scriptures both for its content and for its rhetoric. Some authors have commented that the Greek of this letter is the best of the New Testament. Authorship of the letter is not known although it was for many centuries ascribed to St. Paul. However, it seems to bear an unmistakable "Alexandrian" imprint, i.e., it seems to have originated in the Christian community of Alexandria, Egypt. The author writes to Jewish converts to Christianity.

The message is one of encouragement. The author sees that the addressees or recipients of his letter are in danger of apostasy, not because of any persecution with which they are being threatened, but because of weariness with the demands of Christian living and growing indifference to their call. In this respect, the letter or exhortation could be applied to all of us.

The USCCB web site includes a "Bible" page. I would like to recommend that we all read the introduction to the Letter to the Hebrews that can be found there. (http://www.usccb.org/bible/scripture.cfm?bk=Hebrews&ch=) The introduction points out the various divisions of the work and helps us to follow the author's argument.

At the beginning of the New Year, we are often found making "resolutions." Although we are weeks into a new year, what better resolution could anyone make than to reignite the flame of faith that may have grown a little dim.