My dear friends,

In Hebrews 9:11-15, appointed for contemplation during Monday of Holy Week, we encounter the mystery of Christ's self-offering — not as a distant ritual, but as the compassionate descent of the divine into our suffering. When we contemplate this through the spiritual symbols of the Bodhisattva path, especially the poised postures of Avalokiteśvara and Tara, we find an illuminated vision of Christ as both high priest and Bodhisattva, extending love into the world with grace and power.

Avalokiteśvara
Sri Lanka, ca. 750 CE

Tara
Central India, 11th–12th century

Christ’s entry into the “greater and more perfect tent” speaks not only of heavenly sanctuary, but of a realm beyond the constructed order of ritual and law — beyond the old forms of sacrifice. Just as Avalokiteśvara sits with one leg folded in contemplation and the other extended to the world, Christ remains in divine union while extending himself toward us. His blood is not that of animals, but his own — a sign of boundless compassion. In this, he is the Bodhisattva of bodhisattvas, who enters the suffering world not by compulsion, but by love.

The text next speaks of purification: not merely the cleansing of flesh, but the purifying of the conscience. Just as the bodhisattva’s descent is not to perpetuate ritual but to awaken beings to their true nature, so Christ offers himself “through the eternal Spirit” to awaken our capacity to worship the living God in spirit and truth. This is the very function of Bodhicitta — the awakening mind — purifying us of “dead works” and calling us into the vibrant service of compassion. Christ’s sacrifice is not transactional; it is transformative.

And now we come to the heart of the matter: Christ as mediator of a new covenant. This is the vow of the divine Bodhisattva — to remain with suffering beings until they are freed. The old covenant was bound by law and bloodline; the new is sealed by love and inclusion. Christ, like Tārā descending to aid beings or Avalokiteśvara who hears the cries of the world, enters our realm through his own compassionate sacrifice, so that all who are called — regardless of history — may receive the “eternal inheritance.” This is the liberation that comes not by merit alone, but by grace awakened through love.

In the spirit of Holy Week, we gaze upon the Christ who sits both in the sanctuary of heaven and upon the earth’s dusty roads. His one leg, as it were, folded in divine presence; the other extended toward Golgotha, toward you and me. Like the bodhisattvas of Buddhist devotion, he does not wait to be asked — he moves first, out of love, to lift, heal, and redeem. May we, too, learn this posture of sacred readiness — contemplation rooted in God, and action rooted in love.

Let us then walk this week with reverence and wonder, beholding in Christ the full revelation of bodhicitta — the mind of awakened love that purifies, liberates, and invites us into the covenant of grace. As we contemplate his journey toward the cross, may we open ourselves to follow his way: ready to rise, ready to serve, grounded in God, reaching toward the world.