The blessing that concludes our reading from the Letter to the Hebrews today is well worth our meditation:
May the God of peace, who brought up from the dead
the great shepherd of the sheep
by the Blood of the eternal covenant,
furnish you with all that is good, that you may do his will.
May he carry out in you what is pleasing to him through Jesus Christ,
to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
This blessing summarizes much of what we have read as a Church over the past four weeks in the daily liturgy. Perhaps today, we can take this prayer line by line, or phrase by phrase, and dwell on its meaning and its implications for us, both individually and as an assembly of believers.
To take just one phrase as an example: by the Blood of the eternal covenant. The new covenant-relationship that God the Father has made with us in Christ and through the Spirit is eternal. It will never pass away, never grow old, never be abrogated. And the eternity of this covenant stands regardless of what each one of us does. The only way for us to possibly be outside the covenant is our willing rejection of it—and even then, our God of peace will seek us out and welcome us back, since Jesus Christ, the great shepherd of the sheep goes out in search of the lost. Truly, to him be glory forever and ever. Amen.