Hebrews 9:23–26

Hebrews 9:23 — "The copies… and the heavenly things themselves" The verse opens with a logical inference ("it was necessary therefore") tethered to the preceding argument (vv. 18–22) that even the Mosaic covenant and its tabernacle furnishings were inaugurated with blood. The author has already established, drawing on Exodus 24–40, that the earthly sanctuary was built according to the "pattern" shown to Moses on Sinai (8:5; cf. Ex 25:40). Now he presses the analogy: if the earthly copies (ὑποδείγματα, hypodeigmata — likenesses, sketches) required purification by animal blood, the heavenly originals require purification by something categorically superior — "better sacrifices." The plural here is literary, not implying multiple heavenly rites; it is a rhetorical way of saying that Christ's one sacrifice outweighs all the animal sacrifices of Israel combined. Some commentators (e.g., John Chrysostom) ask in what sense heaven itself needs cleansing; the answer lies not in any moral pollution in God's presence but in the necessity of consecrating the new covenant access that fallen humanity now enjoys — heaven must be formally "opened" to sinners through an act of atonement that matches the gravity of the transgression.

Hebrews 9:24 — "Into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us" This is the christological heart of the passage. The contrast is stark: the high priest entered the Holy of Holies, which was only a "representation" (ἀντίτυπα, antitypa — a counterpart, an echo) of the true; Christ entered οὐρανὸν αὐτόν, "heaven itself." The word "now" (νῦν) is theologically charged — the author does not say Christ will appear before the Father at the end of time but that he does so continuously in the present, in virtue of his once-accomplished sacrifice. The phrase "for us" (ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν) situates the entire heavenly intercession in the logic of substitutionary advocacy: Christ stands before the Father not merely as conqueror but as our representative, presenting the perpetual efficacy of his wounds. This is the living foundation of Christian intercessory prayer — we pray "through Christ our Lord" because he is the mediator who is always already at the Father's right hand on our behalf.

Hebrews 9:25 — "Nor yet that he should offer himself often" The contrast with the Yom Kippur ritual (Leviticus 16) is now made explicit. The High Priest entered the Debir — the inner sanctuary — once annually, carrying "blood not his own": the blood of bulls and goats that could not, in themselves, take away sin (10:4). The author's logic is incisive: if Christ's sacrifice were imperfect like those of the Levitical priests, repetition would be required. But the very fact that it need not be repeated is itself the evidence of its infinite efficacy. St. Thomas Aquinas notes in his Summa Theologiae (III, q. 22, a. 5) that the unity of Christ's sacrifice follows from the unity of his Person as both priest and victim — unlike the Levitical priest who offered something foreign to himself, Christ offered himself, and what is infinite in dignity requires no multiplication.

Hebrews 9:26 — "Once at the end of the ages… to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself" The phrase "end of the ages" (συντέλεια τῶν αἰώνων) is a Jewish eschatological marker indicating that Christ's Incarnation and Passion are not merely historical episodes but the turning point of all history. The entire sweep of salvation history — from creation, through the covenants with Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David — converged toward and was fulfilled in this moment. "To put away sin" renders ἀθέτησιν ἁμαρτίας, literally "the annulment" or "the setting aside" of sin — a legal-covenantal term implying that the debt has not merely been deferred or covered over, but cancelled and rendered void. The instrument is "the sacrifice of himself" (διὰ τῆς θυσίας αὐτοῦ): Christ is simultaneously priest, altar, and victim — a convergence entirely without precedent in the Old Testament typology and which Catholic tradition has seen as the archetype of every true sacrifice.

Catholic tradition finds in these verses a doctrinal watershed for the theology of both priesthood and the Eucharist. The Council of Trent (Session XXII, Doctrina de ss. Missae sacrificio, 1562) directly invokes the logic of Hebrews 9–10 to articulate how the Mass is simultaneously a true sacrifice and yet does not contradict the once-for-all character of Calvary: "the same Christ who offered himself once in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross is contained and is offered in an unbloody manner" in the Eucharist. The key is that the Mass does not repeat or add to Christ's sacrifice but makes it sacramentally present across time — it is the one heavenly sacrifice of verse 24, re-presented on earthly altars.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (§1366–1367) teaches that "the Eucharist is thus a sacrifice because it re-presents (makes present) the sacrifice of the cross, because it is its memorial and because it applies its fruit." This is why the Roman Rite prays in the anaphora that the gifts may be carried to "your altar on high in the sight of your divine majesty" (Roman Canon) — a direct echo of the heavenly sanctuary imagery of verse 24.

The Church Fathers recognized this with great precision. St. John Chrysostom (Homily 17 on Hebrews) insists: "We offer always the same Lamb, not one today and another tomorrow, but always the same one; so that the sacrifice is one." St. Cyril of Alexandria and St. Ambrose both read verse 24 as grounding the intercessory role of Christ the eternal High Priest, who "always lives to make intercession" (Heb 7:25) — a truth that undergirds the Catholic doctrine of Christ as the one Mediator in whom all prayer and all priesthood participates.

Lumen Gentium (§28) and the Catechism (§1545) further draw on this passage to explain why ordained priests act in persona Christi: the ministerial priesthood is a participation in the one eternal priesthood of Christ who appears before the Father "for us."

For a Catholic today, these verses reframe what happens at every Mass. When you attend Sunday Eucharist — perhaps distracted, perhaps going through the motions — Hebrews 9:24 is a reminder that the liturgy is not a religious ceremony happening only in that building: it is a participation in Christ's perpetual self-presentation before the Father in heaven itself. You are not merely recalling a past event; you are being drawn into the one unrepeatable sacrifice that stands at the hinge of all history.

Practically, verse 26 — "to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself" — speaks directly to the Catholic practice of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The annulment of sin that Christ accomplished "once for all" is the permanent reservoir from which absolution draws. When a priest pronounces the words of absolution, it is not a new sacrifice being made; it is the one sacrifice of verse 26 being applied to this particular sinner in this particular moment. The "end of the ages" has come; you need not accumulate religious efforts to earn what has already been definitively offered. Receive it.