It is noteworthy that in Jesus’ crucifixion we see the fulfillment of an important Jewish ritual, the annual Day of Atonement. On that day each year, the high priest entered into the inner tabernacle with an offering to atone for Israel’s sins. On Golgotha Jesus was both the victim and the great high priest. The atoning sacrifice was no longer the blood of an animal but Jesus’ own blood. No longer was it necessary for the high priest to enter into the Holy of Holies in the Jewish Temple, which was a symbol of the heavenly tabernacle. Now Jesus offered himself directly to his Father in heaven. The author of the Letter to the Hebrews points to Jesus’ dual role as victim and priest: It was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, blameless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, he has no need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for those of the people; this he did once for all when he offered himself. (Hebrews 7:26-27) The twentieth-century Catholic apologist Frank Sheed explained the meaning and effect of Jesus’ sacrificial death this way: What [Jesus] had become man to do was now done: expiation had been made, sufficient and overflowing for the first sin which had made the breach between God and the human race, and for all the sins by which the breach had been widened. This was atonement. Disguised by our pronunciation, the meaning of the word is at-one-ment. God and the human race had been at-two: now, and forever, they would be at one. Individual men might still separate themselves from God, but no one could separate the race of man. (To Know Christ Jesus)
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