“See, I am now establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you.” Do you remember that declaration we heard from God on the first Sunday of Lent? I don’t know about you, but this Lent has gone very quickly for me. It’s hard to believe that next Sunday will already be Palm Sunday! And, the readings have presented us with a consistent theme throughout these five weeks of Lent; it’s the theme of “covenant” – I hope you’ve noticed it. It’s very important to our understanding of God and his relationship with us. Remember what a covenant is: an agreement between two parties, based on their relationship with each other, to be faithful to each other and care for each other. On the first Sunday of Lent, we heard about the covenant that God made with Noah and his descendants. On the Second Sunday, we heard of God’s test for Abraham after God had made a covenant with him. On the Third Sunday, we heard the commandments that God gave to his people at Mt. Sinai as part of that covenant. Last Sunday, we learned about the destruction of Jerusalem that resulted from their infidelity to the covenant. This Sunday, we hear Jeremiah foretell a new covenant.
In each of these covenants, God reveals himself to us with increasing clarity. In the first covenant with Noah, he shows his care for us, promising that “there shall not be another flood to devastate the earth.” In the second covenant that God makes with Abraham, he promises that he will make of him a vast nation, as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sands on the seashore. In the covenant that God makes with his people Israel at Mt. Sinai, he provides commandments that will show his people how to live in love of God and neighbor.
In all of these covenants, God assures his people that he will love them and take care of them. All he asks in return is that his people love him and are faithful to him. Unfortunately, as we learn over and over again throughout the Old Testament, God’s people were not faithful to him but turned to other, false gods, who satisfied their own whims and desires.
In today’s first reading, we hear Jeremiah prophesy that God will make “a new covenant. …It will not be like the covenants I made with their fathers…for they broke my covenant” we hear Jeremiah say.
In this reading, we hear Jeremiah describe the new covenant that God forms with his people not by imposing the law but by “writing it on their hearts.” For hundreds of years, God’s people had been learning the law written on stone tablets, but now they would take the law and internalize it – truly make it their own. Remember, for the people of the ancient Near East, the heart was not the symbol of love – as it is for us today – but it was the seat of wisdom and the deepest place of our identity.
Most of Jesus’ life was spent preparing for his final years of public ministry. The Gospels give us only a glimpse of his early years, but from what happens later we can suppose that his hidden years were spent forming the heart he operated out of in his preaching and healing work. He had already gone to the heart of the human struggle for meaning, and “he learned obedience from what he suffered” as we hear proclaimed so eloquently in today’s second reading.
When the “Greeks” – that is, those who were not Jews but had converted to the Jewish faith – told Philip they wanted to see Jesus, it was because they had been drawn to Jesus and his teachings. You will recall that the ancient Greeks placed a great deal of importance on learning and wisdom; they thought this would bring them happiness. They might have been intrigued by the wisdom Jesus had displayed in his preaching. Curiously, we do not hear Jesus speak here with great words of wisdom; instead, he uses a parable of the “seed that falls to the ground and dies” to teach us the only path to fulfillment. He goes on to declare that: “Whoever loves his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will save it.” If these Greeks were looking for an example of Greek philosophy – which strives to find happiness through perfect symmetry and balance in life – they were not to find it in this teaching. This encounter highlights the clash between Greek perfection and the mystery of the crucifixion – what St. Paul later called a “stumbling block for Jews and foolishness to gentiles”. Jesus does not spare these seekers, but tells them that to follow him is to share in his own suffering and death. “Whoever serves me must follow me,” we hear Jesus conclude.
In fact, the sign of the new covenant that Jeremiah foretells in today’s first reading is ratified in Jesus’ death on the cross. And, he prepares his disciples for it at the Last Supper. Notice, at every Mass, when the priest consecrates the wine, he uses the words of Jesus: “Take this, all of you, and drink from it. For this is the chalice of my Blood, the Blood of the new and eternal covenant. …Do this in memory of me.” As I mentioned earlier, God had promised that he would love and take care of his people. Allowing his son to be crucified on the cross – as the result of the jealousy and hard-heartedness of the Jewish leaders of his day – would be the clearest sign of God’s love. “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” we hear Jesus teach his disciples before his crucifixion.
Like the ancient Greeks, many in today’s world search for happiness in human wisdom. But, we embrace the mystery of the cross and gratefully accept the new covenant. Lent is a school for learning how to walk in the way of the Lord. It is a time for us to give our hearts to the divine teacher, who leads us to true and lasting happiness. Let us complete our Lenten journey by learning these lessons ever more clearly as we prepare to join our Lord, who by his death and resurrection, has established the new and everlasting covenant!