I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel

03-17-2024Weekly Reflection Fr. Manasseh Iorchir, VC

In last weekend’s reflection on the First Readings in the Holy Season of Lent “Year B,” we noted how God’s numerous initiatives to establish and sustain a covenant relationship with man led to the Noahic Covenant, the Abrahamic Covenant, and the Mosaic Covenant with the emerging nation Israel. The people, led by their princes and priests, deviated from the terms of this Covenant necessitating a response from God who is just and merciful. When it was obvious that the Old Covenant had failed as a result of Israel’s notorious unfaithfulness, God decided to establish a New Covenant, this time not only with the nation of Israel but the whole of humanity.

The First Reading this weekend recounts the promise, through the prophet Jeremiah, of a New Covenant which the Lord would make with Israel which would be different from the covenant He made with their ancestors in terms of its universality and content. This Covenant would be guided by a law which would not be written on tablets of stone like the Mosaic Covenant, but within their hearts. With this Covenant firmly written on the hearts of its adherents, it would be completely unnecessary for the people to require it to be taught to them; thus, the excuse of ignorance of its terms would be effectively eliminated. Through this Covenant, all will know the mercy of God and experience reconciliation with Him. The Lord God would therefore truly be their God and they would be His people. The First Reading is a message of hope not only to faltering humanity but to all who are able to accept the reality that their lives are not perfect, and to anyone who has perceived a deviation from Christian standards in their personal life and in the society. God loves us and He is merciful. If we realize our faults, return to him in repentance and resolve to make amends, the Lord shall restore us to righteousness, not by our merits but by His sacrifice of Christ the fullest expression of Divine Mercy. Christ, the Lamb of God through whom the promised Covenant would be established, would become “the source of salvation for all who obey Him” (Hebrews 5:9).

In the Gospel passage, Jesus makes allusions to the fulfillment of this promise of hope in His suffering of death. Some Greeks (Gentiles) had asked to see Him, demonstrating a fulfillment of the promised universality of His messiahship. After He was informed of their presence and request, Jesus saw this (His being wanted by foreigners) as a sign for the beginning of His time of “glorification.” He therefore impressed on the Apostles the necessity of the sacrifice of self that He was going to offer in order to restore the world to a covenantal relationship with God. “Unless a wheat grain falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.” We should recall that, up to this point, the Apostles were yet to comprehend how and why their Lord, who was considerably popular and had great “potential,” would have to endure the kind of suffering He was insinuating. They were scandalized by His lack of interest in political messiahship and His apparent “obsession” with the cross instead. Christ made it clear to them that the cross and all its accessories was the only way to reconciliation with God and salvation for the world. The cross would not be restricted to Him alone but would have to be carried by all who wish to pass through Him to the right relationship with the Father; “and where I am, there also will my servant be.” When we are in a position where we have to sacrifice our time, talent and treasure, something of ourselves for life to be better both physically and spiritually for another, it is good to note that Christ has done this for us and has left a good example for us to follow.

Please be kind and may God bless you.

Fr. Manasseh