23 January 2027 · Latin Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malabar Rite · Syro-Malankara Rite · മലയാളം
“how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living God!” Hebrews 9:14
Hebrews describes the old tabernacle with its Holy Place and its Holy of Holies, where the high priest entered once a year with the blood of animals. Then it announces the fulfilment: “when Christ came as a high priest of the good things that have come… he entered once for all into the Holy Place, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.” If animal blood could purify the flesh, “how much more will the blood of Christ… purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living God!”
Mark's Gospel today has only two verses. Jesus comes home, and the crowd is so great that “they could not even eat.” His relatives go out to restrain him, “for people were saying, ‘He has gone out of his mind.’” Total self-giving looks like madness to the world. The One who offered himself without blemish to God seemed foolish even to his own family. Love that gives everything always appears a little mad. On this Saturday we remember Mary, who stood by her Son when others did not understand.
Theme: “How much more will the blood of Christ… purify our conscience!”
The once-for-all sacrifice, a purified conscience, the madness of love.
“He shall slaughter the goat of the sin offering that is for the people and bring its blood inside the curtain, and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, sprinkling it upon the mercy seat and before the mercy seat.” Leviticus 16:15
“But when Christ came as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation), he entered once for all into the Holy Place, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.” Hebrews 9:11–12
Apply: Thank Jesus for his blood at the consecration this Sunday.
“Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.” Psalm 51:2
“how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living God!” Hebrews 9:14
Apply: Go to confession soon.
“O LORD, you have enticed me, and I was enticed; you have overpowered me, and you have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all day long; everyone mocks me.” Jeremiah 20:7
“When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, “He has gone out of his mind.”” Mark 3:21
Apply: Do one generous act others may find excessive.
Christ's blood cleanses us for true worship.
His love looks foolish, and is the wisdom of God.
Take-home resolution: Make a good confession before the end of January.
Dear friends, Hebrews takes us into the old tabernacle, where the high priest entered the Holy of Holies once a year with the blood of animals. Then: when Christ came as a high priest, he entered once for all into the Holy Place, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:11–12).
If animal blood purified the body, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living God! (Hebrews 9:14).
Today's Gospel is very short. So many people came that Jesus could not even eat. His relatives went out to restrain him, for people were saying: he has gone out of his mind (Mark 3:21).
Total love looks like madness. The One who gave his blood for us seemed foolish even to his own. Let us let his blood purify our conscience, and let us love with a little of his holy madness. Amen.
Children, Jesus worked so hard helping people that he forgot to eat! Jesus loves us with all his heart. Let us love others with all our hearts too.
Lord Jesus, you entered the sanctuary with your own blood and obtained eternal redemption. Purify my conscience from dead works, give me the holy madness of your love, and keep me near your Mother, who understood you when others did not. Amen.
Today's two readings could hardly be more different in size, and they meet at the same point: what it costs Jesus to give himself. Hebrews shows the high priest entering the true sanctuary with his own blood. Mark, in two short verses, shows the crowds pressing so hard that he cannot eat, and his own family setting out to restrain him. Psalm 47, a song of God's enthronement which the Church also sings on the Ascension, stands between them.
Setting.
Hebrews is comparing the worship of the desert tent with what Christ has done. The tent had two rooms: the Holy Place, entered daily by the priests, and the Holy of Holies behind the second curtain, entered only by the high priest, once a year, with blood, on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16). The Lectionary keeps the outline of the tent (vv. 2–3) and passes straight to Christ.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“But when Christ came as a high priest of the good things that have come,” (9:11)
A note on the text: some of the oldest manuscripts read “that have come”, which the NRSV follows. Many others, and the Latin Vulgate, read “to come”, which the POC follows. Both are true to the faith: in Christ the good things have come, and their fullness is still ahead.
“he entered once for all into the Holy Place, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.” (9:12)
Priest and victim are one person. No one else in the old worship could say so.
“how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living God!” (9:14)
The argument runs through the ashes of the heifer (Numbers 19) to Christ. Most of the Fathers took “the eternal Spirit” to mean the Holy Spirit, so that the Trinity is at work in the Cross. Cleansing has a purpose: we are cleansed in order to worship.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism teaches that Christ entered heaven itself as our high priest (CCC 662), and that the Eucharist makes present the one sacrifice of the Cross and is not another sacrifice (CCC 1366–1367). St John Chrysostom, preaching on Hebrews, says that we do not offer another sacrifice each day, but always the same one (in substance). This is why the Mass is never a repetition of Calvary, and why Catholics speak of taking part in it.
Setting.
These two verses open one of Mark's “sandwiches”, a story he begins, interrupts with another and then finishes. His family sets out here (vv. 20–21). Scribes from Jerusalem then accuse him of working by Beelzebul (vv. 22–30). His family arrives at the end (vv. 31–35). The two parts explain each other: many of those close to him do not yet understand who he is.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat.” (3:20)
Mark returns to this detail at 6:31. The Son of God has an empty stomach and no time to himself. Love of people costs ordinary things.
“When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, “He has gone out of his mind.”” (3:21)
This is a human reaction: concern, embarrassment, perhaps fear for his life. A later writer would hardly have invented it, which is one reason many scholars take it as very old memory. St Paul knows the same charge: “if we are beside ourselves, it is for God” (2 Corinthians 5:13).
How the Church reads it.
The Church's reading holds two things together. Jesus is true man, with a family, tired, misunderstood and unable to find a meal (CCC 470). And he is the one whom God sent, whose zeal looks like madness to the world. In the tradition of the saints that “madness” became a title of honour, drawn from St Paul: “We are fools for the sake of Christ” (1 Corinthians 4:10).
Did Mary think her son had lost his mind?
The text does not say so. Mary is not named in these two verses; “his family” is a general term and v. 31 only says she came. John also records that “not even his brothers believed in him” (John 7:5), and she is never said to have shared that. A mother who feared for her son's health would be natural. Luke presents her as the one who believed (Luke 1:45), and the Church teaches that her faith never wavered (CCC 149), though it was a real pilgrimage of faith (Lumen Gentium 58).