May 28 Thu
What does “Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Eternal High Priest” mean?
“Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Eternal High Priest” means that Jesus is the one priest who offers the perfect sacrifice and continues to intercede for us forever, fulfilling and surpassing the priesthood of the Old Covenant.
Christ’s priesthood is foretold as “forever,” and Psalm 110 is explicit: “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”
What does “high priest” mean?
In Scripture, a high priest is someone appointed “to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.”
So, when the Church calls Jesus “High Priest,” it means that Jesus truly represents us before God and acts for our reconciliation—not by repeating flawed sacrifices, but by offering what is perfect: His own sacrifice on the Cross.
What does “eternal” add?
In the Letter to the Hebrews, Christ is described as a high priest who enters into the heavenly sanctuary “once for all,” securing an “eternal redemption.”
Hebrews also ties the Eternal High Priest to the nature of his offering. Christ enters the heavenly sanctuary “once for all,” and does so with his own blood, which results in “eternal redemption” for all of us.
This directly answers the problem; while the Old Covenant required repeated sacrifices, Christ does not need to offer daily sacrifices—He offered himself “once for all.”
In Catholic understanding, the Eucharist is intelligible only when we consider that Christ’s priesthood is ongoing—the priesthood of Jesus is not something that ended when He died and rose; it is exercised permanently.
What does make Jesus “our” Eternal High Priest?
The Catechism states that Christ himself is “the eternal high priest of the New Covenant,” and that (through the ordained priest’s ministry) He is the One who offers the Eucharistic sacrifice.
Also, Christ is not only a priest in the past: after entering heaven, He “always lives to make intercession” for those who draw near to God through him.
John Paul II summarizes this intercession and priestly action in heavenly glory: Jesus is eternally consecrated and from there intercedes for us as our Mediator.
How are the “Eternal High Priest” and the Mass related?
Catholic doctrine holds together two truths:
- Christ’s sacrifice is truly one and completed (not repeated),
- Yet it is really made present sacramentally in every Mass, because the eternal High Priest is acting.
That implies that the Eucharistic liturgy is understood as taking place in the context of Christ’s heavenly worship and intercession—not as a circumstantial, purely horizontal religious gathering.
The Church also teaches that in the Eucharist, we are not watching a merely symbolic remembrance. The Mass makes present the sacrifice of the Cross—it does not multiply it or treat it as something new.
So “Eternal High Priest” connects directly to worship: Christ is the principal actor, and the Church’s liturgy participates in his one, permanent priesthood.
In short, the title means that Jesus is the unique priest who offered the perfect sacrifice once for all and continues forever to intercede for you before God the Father—a sacrifice especially made present in the Eucharist.