On 9 June, throughout various countries of Hispanic tradition, the Feast of Jesus the Eternal High Priest is celebrated on the Thursday after Pentecost.

Newsroom (10/06/2022 09:00,  Gaudium Press) The celebration of this feast, of Jesus the Eternal High Priest, began in Spain in 1973, when it was approved by the Congregation for Divine Worship. Later, various episcopal conferences introduced it into their particular calendar.

Clearly, Jesus is the High and Eternal Priest!

The priesthood of Christ is so united to His divine Being that the Council of Ephesus condemns anyone who separates the priest from the Word of God in Christ (DS 261).

The Council of Trent, in speaking of the Holy Mass, affirms that the priesthood of Jesus Christ is according to the order of Melchizedek, since the Levitical priesthood came to an end by its imperfection (DS 1740). All of the priests of the Church, when celebrating Mass and confessing, act in Persona Christi, as though they were ‘other Christs’.

Jesus is High Priest because He is the supreme mediator between God and men, for by His redeeming sacrifice He has restored the initial union that existed between mankind and the Creator; by the application of His infinite merits through His Church He reconciles sinners with God.

Thus we see that Christ is priest, and priest particularly as man, as St. Thomas Aquinas teaches: “Christ is priest, not as God, but as man“, (S Th III, q. 22, a. 5, arg. 3) and as man He restores the bridge with God that had been broken. On an individual level, He restores that union every time a sinner, resorting to His grace, is united to Him again.

Compiled by Sandra Chisholm