Hebrews 12:23Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Or, all believers in general are called sons, while those who pleased God and were deemed worthy to be God's messengers by their word and life are called firstborn.

"And to God the Judge of all."

Here he also frightens them. For He is the Judge of all, not of Jews only, but also of all believers. Therefore, fear this.

At the same time he shows their superiority over those of the Old Testament. They could not endure even words alone, nor did they dare approach even the mountain.

But you have come even to the Judge Himself, that is, Christ. For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son (Jn 5:22).

"And to the spirits of righteous men made perfect."

That is, to souls that have proved glorious and perfect before God, clearly by faith, as he has plainly shown. You also will be united with them, if you imitate them.

Therefore it is impossible for human nature to know the order of that life and all its adornments. These are the very things which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man, which God has prepared for those who love Him (1 Cor 2:9).

Besides this, we know that there are myriads of angels, the triumph of the saints, and the Church of the firstborn enrolled in heaven (Heb 12:23).

David speaks of this city: "Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God" (Ps 86:3). Through Isaiah God gives this city the promise: "I will make you an eternal majesty, a joy from generation to generation. Violence shall no more be heard in your land, nor devastation and destruction within your borders, and you shall call your walls salvation" (Is 60:15, 18).

Therefore, lifting the eyes of your soul worthily toward the things above, seek knowledge of the city of God. But how can one conceive anything worthy of that blessedness, which the river of God gladdens, and whose craftsman and builder is God (Heb 11:10)?

They could not approach even the mountain. But you have come to God Himself, that is, to Christ, the Judge not only of the Jews, but of all other people, faithful and unbelieving.

For He says, "The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son" (Jn 5:22). To the Word, the Son of God, belongs the authority both to teach and to judge. This also instilled fear in them.

"And to the spirits of the righteous."

And to the souls of righteous people dwelling in heaven together with the angels. You have now come to them in thought, and after death you will be with them in reality.

"Made perfect."

That is, dead, or else perfected in virtue. Here, clearly, he either again means the aforementioned firstborn, thereby intensifying his praise of them, or those who came after them in order.

One may also understand it otherwise. The "firstborn" are the souls of the righteous who lived before the divine Incarnation. The "spirits of the righteous" are the souls of the righteous after the Incarnation.

Further, the Church is called the heavenly Jerusalem, as such a city of God or kingdom of God as is "not of this world" (Jn 18:36).

It consists not only of earthly men, but still more of heavenly dwellers. In it those born on earth receive heavenly blessings and lead a heavenly life.

The Church is called a festal assembly, πανήγυρις, that is, a universal festive gathering. In the same way Christ likens His kingdom to a wedding feast, to which the heavenly Master of the house invited many (Lk 14:16).

Myriads of angels belong to the Church. Then, as a constituent part, there enters into her the Church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven.

These are the holy saints, patriarchs, and apostles, who before the rest were enrolled among the citizens of the kingdom of heaven (Lk 10:20).

The Apostle also numbers among the Church of Christ, in general, "the spirits of righteous men made perfect." Until the time of the general resurrection they are separated from their bodies.

They are not clothed with flesh, and are more like the bodiless angels than those born on earth. Yet they await the reception of bodies like the glorious Body of Christ (1 Cor 15:44; Phil 3:21).

By portraying the constitution of the Church in this way, the Apostle gives an unshakable foundation for Orthodox dogmas. These include invoking and glorifying the heavenly powers and the holy saints of God in prayer.

They also include prayer for the departed, and the prayerful intercession and gracious help of angels and departed saints for those who remain alive.

In the Church, because of her unity, all pray for all, and all assist all. In no other way can it be expressed that we have truly come to the "triumphant assembly" and to the "heavenly Jerusalem."

Ascending by the ladder of creatures to the summit of heavenly Zion, to uncreated and eternal Being, the Apostle says: "You have come to God, the Judge of all, and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant."

God the Father is the lawgiver and judge of mankind. He said of Himself, "I am a jealous God, visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation" (Ex 20:5).

He will not acquit those who disobey and transgress His will, nor will He cleanse those who sin (Ex 34:7; Jer 32:18-19).

From this it becomes clear how precious, or priceless, for men is the mediation of Jesus Christ, Who obtains eternal redemption and the New Covenant for them.

At the same time, the mediation of Christ is raised to such a height that the mediation of the bodiless powers and the saints cannot be compared with it.

By the mediation of Christ the New Covenant has been given to us. The mutual help of men in the work of salvation is already grounded in their abiding in the one New Covenant.

By the mediation of Christ the Church was created. The prayerful aid of the saints toward us already flows from our dwelling with them in one Church, since we have come to "the spirits of the righteous."

Therefore, although we flee to the intercession of the saints, we in no way compare them with the one Mediator (1 Tim 2:5).

Explaining how Christ obtained eternal redemption for us and bestowed the New Covenant, the Apostle Paul says: "You have come to the blood of sprinkling, which speaks better than that of Abel."

Concerning Abel's blood the Lord said to Cain, "The voice of your brother's blood cries to Me from the ground" (Gen 4:10).

These words express that the blood of the brother shed by Cain is not silent. It cries out and intercedes before God for vengeance.

This served as the Apostle's basis for comparing it with the Blood of Christ. That Blood also cries out, that is, intercedes before God. Yet it cries out better, not for vengeance, but for reconciliation and forgiveness.

As a result of this mediating action of Christ's Blood, men receive redemption and the New Covenant.

It is important for us to ask this question here. Did the Blood of Christ cry out to God for us only once, namely when it was shed on Golgotha, or does it cry out even now?

The Apostle said, "which speaks," meaning that it speaks constantly. Besides this, Abel's blood cried out after the murder, not only while it was being committed.

Job, wishing to be reconciled with God, whom he represents as hostile to him, says, "O earth, do not cover my blood" (Job 16:18).

He is convinced that his innocent blood, flowing from his wounds and crying out to God, will one day return God's mercy to him.

It is not in vain that Job is considered a type of Christ, since his blood also cried out better than Abel's.

The Prophet Isaiah says that the earth will reveal the blood of the slain, not doubting that this blood will obtain vengeance against the murderers (Is 26:21).

In all these cases, blood appears as crying out not only at the time of its shedding, but also afterward.

Therefore the Blood of Christ cries out even now. Everyone who enters Christ's Church also approaches this Blood that cries without ceasing, and thereby becomes a participant in the New Covenant obtained by it.

But in order to cry out constantly, the Blood of Christ must constantly abide. In order to approach it, one must find it somewhere.

In order to partake of it, one must believe that it has not dried up. It is continually distributed to the faithful, and is therefore called the blood of sprinkling, from an inexhaustible source.

This covenantal Blood is communicated to us, as if sprinkled upon us, in the mystery of the Eucharist. For its sake, through the mystery of Baptism, we entered the Church, which serves as its inexhaustible treasury.

Such, according to the Apostle, must be the image of the Church. God dwells in her. Christ the Mediator sanctifies her by His Blood. In her unity she embraces those born on earth and those who dwell in heaven.

Through it the most high grace of God, often difficult for us to touch, descends to our lowliness. This happens because we lack purity of mind and elevation of heart.

It also happens because our spirit is weighed down by the flesh, and because the highest purity of God cannot be communicated to a nature not cleansed from sin.

Thus the grace of God itself descends to our lowliness, and adapts itself more closely to our particular and gradual needs. It does this through the particular and gradual gifts which the Holy Spirit distributes to the saints.

For this reason, I think, and in this sense, the primitive Church clearly acknowledged "the communion of saints" as an article of faith. This can be seen from certain ancient creeds.

For this reason, I think, the Apostle points to the Church's communion with the heavenly Church as an important advantage of the Christian Church.

"You have come," he says, "to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the festal assembly and Church of the firstborn who are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect" (Heb 12:22-23).

But if someone should ask us when and where we have come, or are coming, to the triumphant heavenly Church, and how our communion with her appears and is signified, the answer is plain.

This inquiry cannot be satisfied more obviously or simply than by pointing to the Christian temple. It is rightly and meaningfully called the Church, not only because it gathers the earthly Church within itself.

It is also called this because it unites her with the heavenly Church.

In it, the memory of the saints is not only reverently honored, and their prayerful intercession invoked with such constancy and order that one may say this:

All the luminaries of the spiritual heaven move, in their appointed cycles of time, around the Church that is on earth.

In it, the manifold grace given to the saints is gathered, as in a treasury, from all times and places. It is preserved unharmed and generously used for the benefit of all and each.

Even to this day, the Holy Spirit here strikes the strings of David's Psalter and fills you with its God-moved sounds.

Even to this day, Moses, Hannah, Habakkuk, Isaiah, Jonah, Daniel, and Zechariah sing their prophetic songs with us and breathe upon us the spirit of their prayer.

Even to this day, every day, the Most Holy Virgin herself opens her heart, filled with divine love, to our heart. She proclaims her magnification of the Lord, surpassing the seraphim.

Even to this day, Basil and Chrysostom place their sacramental words into the mouths of those who serve at our holy rites.

Even to this day, here Ephrem instructs, Damascene both hymns and theologizes, and Sabbas the Sanctified orders the rule of the Church's prayers.

And, to remember at least one of our former fellow countrymen, now a heavenly dweller, visibly binding the earthly Church to the heavenly, Dimitry daily summons the saints in turn.

He summons them to show us, for imitation, their God-pleasing life and struggles.

What shall we say of the ancient sacred ordinance of placing portions of the bodies of holy martyrs and other saints in the most sacred place of the temple?

Does this not present a tangible point of gracious contact between the earthly Church and the heavenly? To one belongs the spirit of the righteous man made perfect.

The other still possesses his body, which is not alien to the spirit, because it manifests actions of the highest vitality, namely healings.

What shall we say of another Church custom, by which a temple, always dedicated properly to God, is sometimes assigned to the name of one of the saints?

So too the temple consecrated today is assigned to the name of Saint James. Is this merely a custom? Is the naming only for distinction and memory? No.

The God-wise establishers of Church customs could not act without thought. In the Church there is nothing without meaning. In all her manifestations there lives a hidden gracious power. In every word the Spirit is uttered.

If at the consecration we named this temple the temple of Saint James, then by this very act we entrusted the temple to him. We reverently invited this holy hierarch to be its protector and head.

The holy hierarch, living in God Who loves mankind, undoubtedly did not refuse this invitation, out of his love for mankind.

What confirmation for the temple! What help for us who serve weakly and unworthily! What consolation for you who stand here!

A perfected righteous man invisibly presides here among us. As one who is worthy, he opens more widely the streams of grace, which are more or less obstructed by our unworthiness.

He strengthens our weak service and completes its deficiencies. He raises our unwinged prayers, and yours, to the altar of God above the heavens.

Blessed is God, wondrous in His saints!

That is, they are numbered with the community of believers. This includes those still living on earth, but rightly considered citizens of heaven (Phil 3:20), and those who have already fallen asleep, namely the blessed men of the Old Testament and the first Christians.

They have come to such a Judge, who is the God of all people and their Master. Therefore He can always punish the disobedient and apostates.

They have come to the assembly of souls who have completed their earthly contest, though they have not yet been clothed in the glorified body.

Finally, we have drawn near to the very Mediator of the new, or newly established, covenant, νέας. We make use of the blood of sprinkling, which speaks better things than the blood of Abel.

Abel's blood cried out for vengeance, but Christ's blood cries out for forgiveness (Heb 12:18-24).