The Bible, it has been said, is a library. That is not to say there isn’t one sacred Author of all the books – God –  who is revealing both in word and deed. It is to say that the Bible is not a single genre but is rather made up of many different genres. Within the Bible is poetry, historical narrative, apocalyptic, psalms, and many other styles of literature. What genre is The Letter to the Hebrews? 

All this is, indeed, extraordinarily beautiful. In prayer, you can contemplate this admirable love of God: Jesus "had to be made like his brethren in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful High Priest in the service of God". He has accepted humiliation, suffering and death with immense generosity.

The saints knew that God had entrusted to them a mission in this life, a mission to both evangelize and go about the work of recreation and transformation of this world that He loves until Jesus returns and makes all things new.

Who are we to God? We are family to God. And if we are family to God, then we are brothers and sisters to one another. Why is this so important to linger with? Because though this language is almost certainly familiar to most of us in the Church, the lived experience of being a family in the Church is probably not...