June 1: Today is The Feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Eternal High Priest

I enjoy reading Catholic excellent articles and providing beautiful scripture verses on Hebrews 2 and Hebrews 7 through USCCB.

Question: Why do we all see “Today is The Feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Eternal High Priest”?

Answer: Thursday after Pentecost Wow! 🔥🕊️🔥🕊️🔥🕊️🙏🙏

Wikipedia Feast of Christ the Priest

The entry from the Roman Martyrology (2005) reads: 

Thursday after Pentecost 💜🤟🙏🔥🕊️🔥🕊️🔥🕊️

The Feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ, The Eternal High Priest, according to the order of Melchizedek.

In him the Father has been well pleased from before all time. As Mediator between God and human beings, fulfilling his Father’s will, he sacrificed himself once on the altar of the Cross as a saving Victim for the whole world. Thus, instituting the pattern of an everlasting sacrifice, with a brother’s kindness he chose, from among the children of Adam, men to augment the priesthood, so that, from the sacrifice continually renewed in the Church, streams of divine power might flow, whereby a new heaven and a new earth might be made, and throughout the whole universe there would be perfected what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into the human heart.

On June 1, 2023, Today is The Feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Eternal High Priest, on the first Thursday after Pentecost, focuses on Jesus’ Priestly Office (Latin: Munus sacerdotale). Jesus is considered the model for believers, and for the clergy in particular, with priests acting in persona Christi (“In the person of Christ”). The laity are thus urged to pray that priests would be more like Christ, the compassionate and trustworthy high priest (Hebrews 2:17), ever-living to intercede for humanity before The Father (Heb 7:25).

Feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Eternal High Priest 

The feast focuses firstly on Jesus’ Priestly Office (Latin: Munus sacerdotale). He is considered the model for believers, and for the clergy in particular, with priests acting In persona Christi (“In the person of Christ”). The laity are thus urged to pray that priests would be more like Christ, the compassionate and trustworthy high priest (Hebrews 2:17), ever-living to intercede for humanity before The Father (Heb 7:25).

The Second Vatican Council taught many things about the Priesthood of Christ, and sharing in that one Priesthood through the Sacraments of Baptism and Holy Orders. This development has been reflected in many subsequent documents. One effective way to build upon this teaching is to establish the Feast of Christ the Priest more widely.

What Pope Pius XI wrote about the feast in honor of Christ’s Kingly Office can be said just as truly about this feast in honor of Our Lord’s Priesthood:

For people are instructed in the truths of faith, and brought to appreciate the inner joys of religion far more effectually by the annual celebration of our sacred mysteries than by any official pronouncement of the teaching of the Church. Such pronouncements usually reach only a few and the more learned among the faithful; feasts reach them all; the former speak but once, the latter speak every year – in fact, forever.[8]

The entry from the Roman Martyrology (2005) reads:

🔥🕊️🔥🕊️ Thursday after Pentecost: The Feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ, The Eternal High Priest, according to the order of Melchizedek. In him the Father has been well pleased from before all time. As Mediator between God and human beings, fulfilling his Father’s will, he sacrificed himself once on the altar of the Cross as a saving Victim for the whole world. Thus, instituting the pattern of an everlasting sacrifice, with a brother’s kindness he chose, from among the children of Adam, men to augment the priesthood, so that, from the sacrifice continually renewed in the Church, streams of divine power might flow, whereby a new heaven and a new earth might be made, and throughout the whole universe there would be perfected what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into the human heart.

[8] Pope Pius XI, Quas Primas 21 establishing the universal feast of Christ the King