1. The main point of what we are saying is that we have a high priest. He is seated at the right hand of the divine majesty in heaven,

2. where he serves as minister of the true temple and sanctuary, set up not by any mortal but by the Lord.

3. A high priest is appointed to offer to God gifts and sacrifices, and Jesus also has to offer some sacrifice.

4. Had he remained on earth, he would not be a priest, since others offer the gifts according to the Law.

5. In fact, the ritual celebrated by those priests is only an imitation and shadow of the supernatural ritual. We know the word of God to Moses with regard to the construction of the holy tent. He said: You are to make everything according to the pattern shown to you on the mountain.

6. Now, however, Jesus enjoys a much higher ministry in being the mediator of a better covenant, founded on better promises.

7. If all had been perfect in the first covenant, there would have been no need for another one.

8. Yet God sees defects when he says: The days are coming - it is the word of the Lord - when I will draw up a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.

9. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. They did not keep my covenant, and so I myself have forsaken them, says the Lord.

10. But this is the covenant that I will make with the people of Israel in the days to come: I will put my laws into their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people.

11. None of them will have to teach one another or say to each other: Know the Lord, for they will know me from the least to the greatest.

12. I will forgive their sins and no longer remember their wrongs.

13. Here we are being told of a new covenant; which means that the first one had become obsolete, and what is obsolete and aging is soon to disappear.





“Uma Missa bem assistida em vida será mais útil à sua salvação do que tantas outras que mandarem celebrar por você após sua morte!” São Padre Pio de Pietrelcina