Friday, January 20,
2017
In today’s Gospel, the Letter to
the Hebrew speaks of the new covenant and quotes the prophecy of
Jeremiah (Jer 31:31-34):
Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new
covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant
which I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out
of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was their husband,
says the Lord. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of
Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I
will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my
people. And no longer shall each man teach his neighbor and each his brother,
saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to
the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will
remember their sin no more. (Jer 31:31-14, quoted in Heb 8:8-12)
At the Last Supper, the Lord
will speak of this new covenant, calling it the New Covenant in my Blood as he establishes the Eucharist as an
everlasting gift to us, a gift which renews itself every time the Mass is
celebrated.
This Covenant is a gift of love
to us, a work of grace. And it takes the usual formulas of merit and worthiness
and turns them right up on their heads.
The work of grace is freely
given, and is given without restriction, given to all. It is no longer a
question of worthiness, or merit or anything of that sort. As one spiritual
writer once said, “love isn’t something we have to deserve or earn or measure
up to. God’s love for us isn’t something we have to deserve or earn or measure
up to. It just is. It just is.”
Sometimes we feel so unworthy to
receive this gift. One person once confided to me: I don’t deserve to be treated
like someone I’m not. I feel like is Love is trying to put me on a pedestal
when I actually belong down in the dirt. I’m not good enough. I DON’T DESERVE
IT.
But what this covenant ushers in
is a whole new way of being. It’s not a question of worthiness. It’s not
something that has to be deserved. There isn’t anything you have to do to
make yourself worthy of it.
The old formula that resembles an
accountants spread sheet sheet with “=” signs and +’s and –“s is overturned
here. And yet still, some people try to approach their religion with the old
formula and it makes them miserable. Are you one of those people? If so, get
rid of that old thinking and accept God’s way of thinking.
The love God wishes to pour out
on us is so powerful that it is changing us if we will allow it to. None of the
past matters any more. Just the present. An eternal present in which not only
are our sins forgiven, but they are not even remembered.
Rest in this reality and be
especially aware of it this weekend when you go to receive the Eucharist.
God bless you! Have a nice
weekend.
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