At the Last Supper, Jesus offers what is called the “High-Priestly Prayer”. Speaking with his Father, Jesus acknowledges “the hour” has come when the Father will be known and the gift of eternal life with God is restored to mankind. In Pope Benedict XVI’s masterful, “Jesus of Nazareth”*, he reveals how this prayer is rooted in the time of Moses and the “Feast of Atonement”. He explains how the “structure of the ritual (Lev 16) is reproduced exactly in Jesus’ prayer”, where Jesus as the high priest, makes atonement for himself, the Apostles and for all who will come to believe through their word – for the Church.”
Most beautifully, Pope Benedict explains how God, in revealing his name to Moses at the Burning Bush, “places himself within Israel’s reach.” Is God’s love not wonderful? And there’s more. Benedict shares how the “unutterable holy name of God” is pronounced by the high priest only once each year – on the Day of Atonement and it has a singular purpose: “To restore to Israel, after the misdeeds of the previous year, its character as a “holy people”, to lead it back once more to its designated position as God’s people in the midst of the world. In this sense it has to do with the innermost purpose of the whole of creation, that is, to open up a space for response to God’s love, to his holy will”.
* “Jesus of Nazareth – Holy Week”, Pope Benedict XVI, Ch 4.