In His death, Jesus gave everything. What else could He do to save us?
After His Resurrection, Jesus ascended to the Father: “And the Lord Jesus was taken
up to heaven” (Mk 16:19); “This Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven” (Ac. 1:11).
Even with the Father, Jesus hasn’t left us.
The Letter to the Hebrews depicts Jesus as an eternal intercessor, through whom we
continue to receive the graces from His Cross and Resurrection. St. Thomas Aquinas
reflects: “Here the Apostle alludes to a rite of the Old Law according to which the high
priest, who entered the holy of holies, stood before the mercy seat to pray for the
people. Similarly, Christ entered into heaven to stand before God for our salvation. But
not in the same way, because the high priest could not see the holy of holies or any face
on account of the smoke ascending from the censer; but Christ appears before the face
of God: not that a bodily face is there, or a cloud, but clear vision” (Commentary on the
Letter to the Hebrews, 466)
While Christ was on our earth, His Father was with Him but in His human nature there
were limits. Thomas points out the ways that God is with each human: “When Christ
was on earth, could He not appear before the face of God, since God sees all things? I
answer that, as Augustine speaking of God says: ‘You were with me, but I was not with
You,’ namely, because God is in all things by His essence, power and presence;
[Thomas believes this presence is also with the wicked] but the wicked are not with God
through grace (Commentary on the Letter to the Hebrews, 467)
Christ’s Ascension opened up His human nature to behold God perfectly: “Christ is said
to have entered to appear before the face of God, for although He always saw Him
clearly as one perfectly happy, yet the state of pilgrims, as such, does not confer this,
but only the heavenly state. Therefore, when He ascended perfectly happy, He entered,
body and soul, to appear in the presence of God, i.e., He entered the place where God
is seen clearly; and this for us. For He entered heaven to prepare the way for us: ‘I go to
prepare a place for you. But I will come again and will take you to myself’ (Jn. 14:3)”
(Commentary on the Letter to the Hebrews, 467). Jesus is with the Father “for us.”
Christ offering of Himself on the Cross for us occurred once and for all: “As the high
priest entered once a year, so Christ entered only once…For in the Old Testament, the
high priest could not enter lawfully but once a year, yet according to the Law he had to
enter it every year with the blood of others, as it says in Leviticus (chap. 16)”
(Commentary on the Letter to the Hebrews, 470).
Christ offered Himself once but His very existence with the Father draws us to the
Father: “Christ did not … offer himself often, as the high priest enters into the holies
every year with the blood of others… Christ offered Himself for the sins of the whole
world, because He was made the propitiation for our sins and for those of the whole
world (1 Jn. 2:2).” (Commentary on the Letter to the Hebrews, 470).

Christ’s sacrifice was the surrender of Himself to the Father, even in His brutal death: “In
the Old Testament, sins were not taken away, but this was accomplished by the offering
of Christ … The high priest of the Law did not offer his own blood as Christ did. Hence,
he says, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to put away sin by the
sacrifice of himself…: ‘Christ died once for our sins’ (1 Pt 3:8). (Commentary on the
Letter to the Hebrews, 472).
“Christ underwent death by His own will: ‘No man takes it away from me: but I lay it
down of myself’ (Jn. 10:18). Therefore, he says, that he was offered: ‘He was offered
because it was His own will’ (Is. 53:7); ‘Christ has died once for our sins’ (1 Pt 3:18).
The Letter to the Hebrews affirms that Chirt’s death was for “many.” Thomas comments:
“Christ’s death destroys sin; therefore, he says, to bear the sins of many, i.e., to remove
them. He does not say ‘of all,’ because Christ’s death, even though it was enough for
all, has no efficacy except in regard to those who are to be saved: for not all are subject
to Him by faith and good works. (Commentary on the Letter to the Hebrews, 477)
Christ was the victim of sin: “For even though He had no sin in the first coming, He
came in the likeness of sinful flesh (Rom. 8:3). In the first coming He was also made a
victim for sin: ‘Him who knew no sin, he has made sin for us’ (2 Cor. 5:21).”
Jesus’ second coming will be unlike his first coming: “What will be peculiar to the
second coming is that He will appear not to be judged, but to judge and to reward
according to merits; hence, he says that he will appear. And although He will appear to
all in the flesh, even to those who wounded Him, He will appear according to His divinity
to the elect that eagerly wait for him by faith to save them: ‘Blessed are all they that wait
for him’ (Is. 30:18); ‘We look for the Savior, Our Lord Jesus Christ, who will reform the
body of our lowliness, made like to the body of his glory’ (Phil 3:20).” (Commentary on
the Letter to the Hebrews, 478)

Denis Vincent Wiseman, O.P.