19 January 2027 · Latin Rite
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“We have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters the inner shrine behind the curtain,” Hebrews 6:19
Hebrews encourages a tired community: “God is not unjust; he will not overlook your work and the love that you showed for his sake in serving the saints.” Do not become sluggish, but imitate those who “through faith and patience inherit the promises”, like Abraham. God bound himself by an oath, so that “we… might be strongly encouraged to seize the hope set before us. We have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul.” Our anchor is not thrown into the shifting sand of this world; it is fixed in heaven, where Jesus has gone ahead of us.
In the Gospel the Pharisees object when the disciples pluck grain on the sabbath. Jesus recalls David eating the holy bread when he was hungry, and declares: “The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.” God's laws are gifts for our life, not burdens to crush it. The Lord's Day is his gift of rest and worship, and Christ himself is its Lord.
Theme: “A sure and steadfast anchor of the soul.”
Persevering love, hope anchored in heaven, the Lord of the sabbath.
“God is not a human being, that he should lie, or a mortal, that he should change his mind. Has he promised, and will he not do it? Has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?” Numbers 23:19
“We have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters the inner shrine behind the curtain,” Hebrews 6:19
Apply: Hold on to one promise of God in a present trouble.
“He has gained renown by his wonderful deeds; the LORD is gracious and merciful.” Psalm 111:4
“For God is not unjust; he will not overlook your work and the love that you showed for his sake in serving the saints, as you still do.” Hebrews 6:10
Apply: Return to one good work you abandoned.
“Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy.” Exodus 20:8
“Then he said to them, “The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.”” Mark 2:27–28
Apply: Make Sunday a day of worship, family and rest.
God remembers our love and anchors our hope.
Christ is Lord of our time and our rest.
Take-home resolution: Keep next Sunday holy as a family.
Dear friends, Hebrews speaks to tired Christians: God is not unjust; he will not overlook your work and the love that you showed for his sake in serving the saints (Hebrews 6:10). No act of love is forgotten.
Do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises, like Abraham. God bound himself by an oath so that we might seize the hope set before us.
We have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters the inner shrine behind the curtain (Hebrews 6:19). Our anchor is fixed in heaven, where Jesus has gone ahead of us.
In the Gospel Jesus says: the sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath (Mark 2:27–28). God's law serves our life. Let us keep the Lord's Day as a gift, and hold fast to our anchor of hope. Amen.
Children, an anchor keeps a boat from floating away. Hope in Jesus keeps our hearts safe. Hold on to Jesus!
Faithful God, you never forget our love and you have given us hope as an anchor for the soul. Keep us patient in faith, and teach us to keep your day as a gift of life, with Christ the Lord of the sabbath. Amen.
Hope needs something to hold on to. Hebrews gives it two things: God’s promise and God’s oath, and pictures hope as an anchor thrown not down but up, through the curtain, where Jesus has already gone. In Mark the disciples pluck grain on the sabbath and Jesus answers with the deepest thing that can be said about that holy day: it is God’s gift, and he is its Lord. Both readings point to a God whose word and whose law are for our life. The key words are anchor, forerunner and sabbath.
Setting.
The preacher has just written one of the sternest passages in the letter, about those who fall away (6:4–8). Now he changes his tone: “we are confident of better things in your case” (6:9). He remembers their love, then urges them on with the example of Abraham, who waited patiently, and with God’s own oath (Genesis 22:16–17). At the end he brings the argument back to Melchizedek, ready for chapter 7.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“For God is not unjust; he will not overlook your work and the love that you showed for his sake in serving the saints, as you still do.” (6:10)
The “saints” are simply the fellow believers. To tired people the preacher says first of all: God has seen it. No act of love is forgotten.
“so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible that God would prove false, we who have taken refuge might be strongly encouraged to seize the hope set before us.” (6:18)
The two things are the promise and the oath. God does not need an oath to be truthful. He gives one for our sake, because we find it hard to trust. This is great courtesy on God’s part.
“We have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters the inner shrine behind the curtain, where Jesus, a forerunner on our behalf, has entered” (6:19–20)
The image changes in the middle. An anchor goes down into the dark and holds the ship. This one goes up, behind the curtain of the Holy of Holies (Leviticus 16:2), where only the high priest went, once a year. Our hope is fastened where we cannot yet see, to someone who has already arrived.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism quotes this very image in explaining the virtue of hope: hope is “the sure and steadfast anchor of the soul”, which enters where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf (CCC 1820). It also presents Abraham as the model of hope against hope (CCC 1819). Hope is more than a mood. It rests on what God has already done in Christ.
Setting.
This is the fourth of the controversy stories, and the first to deal with the sabbath. The sabbath was and is a great gift of God to Israel, a sign of creation (Exodus 20:8–11) and of liberation from Egypt (Deuteronomy 5:12–15). Picking some ears from a neighbour’s field with the hand was allowed (Deuteronomy 23:25). The objection is about the day: the Law forbade harvest work on the sabbath (Exodus 34:21), and later Jewish tradition, in the Mishnah, lists reaping among thirty-nine kinds of forbidden work.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?” (2:24)
Jesus is held responsible for what his disciples do, which was normal for a teacher. He does not deny the Law, and he does not call the objection foolish. He argues from Scripture, as one Jewish teacher with others.
“He entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence” (2:26)
The story is in 1 Samuel 21:1–6. Human need took precedence over a holy rule. The argument also has a hidden point: if David and his companions could do it, what about one greater than David and his companions?
“The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.” (2:27–28)
The first half is an insight some Jewish teachers also voiced. A later rabbinic saying, attributed to Rabbi Simeon ben Menasya, says that the sabbath is given to you, and not you to the sabbath (Mekhilta on Exodus 31:14). It is the second half that is new. Who can be lord of the day that God blessed?
How the Church reads it.
“Jesus never fails to respect the holiness of this day”, the Catechism teaches. He gives the sabbath law “its authentic and authoritative interpretation”, and this passage is quoted there (CCC 2173). Christians keep Sunday, the day of the Resurrection, which fulfils the spiritual truth of the sabbath (CCC 2175–2176). St John Paul II wrote at length on this link in Dies Domini (1998). So Sunday is not a burden but a gift: a day to worship God, to rest, and to do good to others (CCC 2184–2186).
1 Samuel 21 says that the priest was Ahimelech, not Abiathar. Is Mark mistaken?
This is a real difficulty. In 1 Samuel 21 the priest is Ahimelech, Abiathar’s father (1 Samuel 22:20). Matthew and Luke tell the story without giving the name. Some think that the phrase may mean “in the time of Abiathar” or “in the passage about Abiathar”, since Abiathar is the better known figure. Others think that a slip entered in the telling. The Church teaches that Scripture teaches without error “that truth which God wanted put into sacred writings for the sake of salvation” (Dei Verbum 11), and the point Jesus makes here is not affected by the name.