Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord

Today's Readings

This reflection will be focusing on today's Second Reading:

Brothers and sisters:
It is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats take away sins.
For this reason, when Christ came into the world, he said:

"Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;
in holocausts and sin offerings you took no delight.
Then I said, 'As is written of me in the scroll, behold, I come to do your will, O God.'"

First he says, "Sacrifices and offerings, holocausts and sin offerings,
you neither desired nor delighted in."
These are offered according to the law.
Then he says, "Behold, I come to do your will."
He takes away the first to establish the second.
By this "will," we have been consecrated
through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all.        - Hebrews 10:4-10

Many of us have heard the phrase, “Actions speak louder than words”, at least once in our lives, with it meaning that you can say all that you want, but without actions showing consistency, your words may fall short. However, this excerpt has offered something “louder” than action: will, or the inclination or desire to act. Again, one can say just about anything, but without action, these may be merely empty words. This can also be said about actions without will or desire, as mentioned in the reading: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire”/ “Sacrifices and offerings, holocausts and sin offerings, you neither desired nor delighted in.” It is not enough to say and to do; one must have the will and desire for it to mean it to its fullest.

It is through this understanding and in this passage that we touch on the reasoning of Jesus Christ and his physical embodiment into the world. It is said that the old tradition included the sacrifice and offering of multiple “bulls and goats [to] take away sins”, but that is impossible! The sacrificial animals and their offerings were part of the law, but this was to be a law only until the coming of Jesus, the Messiah, who would replace all the sacrifices and offerings with the ultimate sacrifice of His Body. This is because Jesus carried the will of us all for that one-time sacrifice, as He was purely and ultimately ordained with the will to save us from our sins. It is through Him that all the boxes were checked: words, actions, and will, all the while being human – therefore having the possibility to err (which is what the Lenten season commemorates). And it is “by this ‘will,’ we have been consecrated through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

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