Welcome to the First Week in Ordinary Time. For the next four weeks, we will be reading the Letter to the Hebrew. The first thing one notices is that it is not called a letter of St. Paul. The name of the human author is unknown. In fact, lacking a greeting some wonder if it should even be called a letter. It may have in fact been a homily.
Regardless of what human wrote it, and what it was intended to be, from our earliest day Christians have accepted it as the inspired word of God. Those who know first century Greek well describe it as perhaps the most beautifully written of the New Testament.
If you have never read a book of the Bible from beginning to end, now is the time. What the early Church saw in the Letter to the Hebrews is a clear articulation of who Jesus is and what sets the Christian faith apart.
It opens simply addressing us as Brothers and Sisters, then in a single sentence sets forth the thesis.
In times past, God spoke in partial and various ways to our ancestors through the prophets; in these last days, he spoke to us through the Son, whom he made heir of all things and through whom he created the universe,
If we are as we, the Church, are the Body of Christ, there is no better way to begin ordinary time than with this profound look at what we believe about Christ.
