Numbers 29

Numbers 29:1

Origen of Alexandria: After these, in the seventh month other festivals are celebrated. “On the first day of the month” there is the new moon of trumpets, just as it says in the psalm, “Play the trumpet at the beginning of the month.” But “on the tenth day of the seventh month” there is the festival of atonement. Only “on this day” is the high priest dressed with all the pontifical garments. Then he is dressed in “the manifestation and truth.” Then he goes into that inaccessible place where he can approach only “once a year,” that is, into “the Holy of Holies.” For “once a year” the high priest, leaving the people behind, enters that place where “the mercy seat” is, and above “the mercy seat is the cherubim,” where “the ark of testimony” and “the altar of incense” are, where no one is permitted to enter except the high priest alone.Therefore if I should consider how the true “high priest,” my Lord Jesus Christ, having indeed been placed in the flesh, was with the people all year, that year about which he himself says, “He sent me to proclaim good news to the poor and to announce the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of forgiveness,” I perceive how “once in” this “year” on the day of atonement he enters into “the Holy of Holies.” That is, when with his dispensation fulfilled “he penetrates the heavens” and goes to the Father to make atonement for the human race and prays for all those who believe in him. — HOMILIES ON Leviticus 9.5.7-8