XXII SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Hb 12:18-24
There are many Christians who put the Old and the New Testaments on the same footing, without making any effort to situate the different writings in the line of the long process of revelation. The letter to the Hebrews makes an effort at stressing the differences and at showing how the New Testament supersedes the Old.
Speaking about the experience of God, the letter points out the radical differences between the two testaments.
In the Old Testament, people experienced God through the "blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest, and the sound of a trumpet" and they heard God's voice as a terrifying voice. Trembling with fear, people remained far away and pleaded with Moses to be the spokesman and the intermediary with God (Ex 19:12-19). Moses himself was in fear before the manifestation of God's glory (Hb 12:18-24).
In the New Testament, the atmosphere is completely different. There is no fear, but joy and celebration. We are being called to climb the holy mountain, to enter the city of the living God and to join the angels, the first born and the spirits of the righteous in the great feast in God's presence and in the presence of Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant. Paul wrote to the Romans in a similar manner, saying: "For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption." (Ro 8:15).
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