Lectionary: 35

Reading I

Jer 31:31-34

The days are coming, says the LORD,

when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel

and the house of Judah.

It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers

the day I took them by the hand

to lead them forth from the land of Egypt;

for they broke my covenant,

and I had to show myself their master, says the LORD.

But this is the covenant that I will make

with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD.

I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts;

I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

No longer will they have need to teach their friends and relatives

how to know the LORD.

All, from least to greatest, shall know me, says the LORD,

for I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more.

Responsorial Psalm

51:3-4, 12-13, 14-15

R. (12a) Create a clean heart in me, O God.

Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;

in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.

Thoroughly wash me from my guilt

and of my sin cleanse me.

R. Create a clean heart in me, O God.

A clean heart create for me, O God,

and a steadfast spirit renew within me.

Cast me not out from your presence,

and your Holy Spirit take not from me.

R. Create a clean heart in me, O God.

Give me back the joy of your salvation,

and a willing spirit sustain in me.

I will teach transgressors your ways,

and sinners shall return to you.

R. Create a clean heart in me, O God

Reading II

Heb 5:7-9

In the days when Christ Jesus was in the flesh,

he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears

to the one who was able to save him from death,

and he was heard because of his reverence.

Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered;

and when he was made perfect,

he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.

Verse Before the Gospel

Jn 12:26

Whoever serves me must follow me, says the Lord;

and where I am, there also will my servant be.

Gospel

Jn 12:20-33

Some Greeks who had come to worship at the Passover Feast came to Philip, who was

from Bethsaida in Galilee,

and asked him, “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.”

Philip went and told Andrew;

then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.

Jesus answered them,

“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

Amen, amen, I say to you,

unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies,

it remains just a grain of wheat;

but if it dies, it produces much fruit.

Whoever loves his life loses it,

and whoever hates his life in this world

will preserve it for eternal life.

Whoever serves me must follow me,

and where I am, there also will my servant be.

The Father will honor whoever serves me.

“I am troubled now. Yet what should I say?

‘Father, save me from this hour’?

But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour.

Father, glorify your name.”

Then a voice came from heaven,

“I have glorified it and will glorify it again.”

The crowd there heard it and said it was thunder;

but others said, “An angel has spoken to him.”

Jesus answered and said,

“This voice did not come for my sake but for yours.

Now is the time of judgment on this world;

now the ruler of this world will be driven out.

And when I am lifted up from the earth,

I will draw everyone to myself.”

He said this indicating the kind of death he would die.

The 6 Covenants With God

I wish to discuss two critical points from today’s readings with you:

1. The meaning of the New Covenant referred to in today’s first reading.
2. How the New Covenant was instituted by the life, death and resurrection of Christ.

Let’s begin with the First Reading from the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah talks of a new covenant between God and His people, and how this New Covenant will be different from what was before. Jeremiah describes it this way:

But this is the covenant that 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 on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

So, what exactly is a covenant and why did God choose to have covenants with our ancestors?

A covenant is basically an agreement between people, or between God and His people, that binds one to the other. This is much different than a contract, which involves the exchange of goods or services for money. A covenant can be thought of as a sacred family bond, taken with an oath before a higher power, whereas a contract is just an agreement to pay someone for services rendered, which involves simply a promise to each other, rather than an oath. Covenants most often involve a ceremony with witnesses, invoking God, and a communal meal. The covenant therefore unites the flesh and blood of both parties for generations. Think of a marriage between two people made before God - that’s a covenant.

When Jeremiah wrote this prophecy in todays first reading, there were 5 total covenants God over time had with His people. There were:

1. Adam and Eve as one holy couple.
2. Noah, as one Holy Family.
3. Abraham, representing one holy tribe.
4. Moses, representing one holy Nation.
5. David representing one holy kingdom.

So, as you can see, what God is doing here is not only building up man's relationship to Himself, he is revealing more and more of Himself to us with each and every covenant, until at last He has revealed Himself fully in Jesus Christ.

In today’s reading, Jeremiah prophesizes there will be a new covenant between God and His people. This 6’th Covenant - Jeremiah’s New Covenant - was a covenant of unconditional blessing based on the life, death and resurrection of Christ. This New Covenant is unconditional, final and irreversible, and although it was announced ~580BC, it was fulfilled in the life of Jesus and applied to all who had faith in the Messiah from Adam onward.

Hold that thought in mind as we come forward six centuries to the land of Palestine. Notice Jesus’s words in today’s Gospel from the book of John. Jesus is talking about how he Himself will fulfill Jeremiah’s New Covenant, and how it covers all of humanity, not just about the Jewish kingdom, the people of Israel, the tribe of Abraham, the family of Noah or Adam and Eve. Jesus says:

Whoever serves me must follow me,

and where I am, there also will my servant be.

The Father will honor whoever serves me… (This is the New Covenant)

Now is the time of judgment on this world;

now the ruler of this world will be driven out. (That’s Satan)

And when I am lifted up from the earth, (the Resurrection)

I will draw everyone to myself.” (This is the New Covenant)

Now, briefly, in today’s second reading from Paul’s Letter to the Hebrews, we hear St. Paul’s summary of this 6’th covenant fulfilled in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus:

Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered; and when he was made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.

My dear Holy Family family, the end of Lent is coming fast and Easter is approaching. Eastertide is when we remember and celebrate the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. It is literally the culmination of Jesus’ life and the beginning of the God’s New Covenant with us. This is the theme of today’s readings for the 5’th Sunday of Lent - how the anniversary of the New Covenant is almost here, how God revealed Himself to us in the person of Jesus, how Jesus provided us the Deposit of Faith in its fullest sense, and Jesus died so that the gates of Heaven might be opened and so that our own salvation may be achieved.

When you look at all these things in perspective, you see that Easter is really the watershed moment of all of human history.

Maybe this year’s Lent has passed you by and you’re still not spiritually prepared for Easter. But now that you know Easter is the most important event in all of human history, perhaps you can still start Lent a little late or at least do better next year. Take solace in Jesus’ words today -

“I am troubled now. Yet what should I say?

‘Father, save me from this hour’?

But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour.

Jesus clearly wasn’t looking forward to His suffering and death, but Jesus lived in perfect obedience to His Father in Heaven. Lent isn’t easy, but somehow knowing that Jesus Himself recoiled from the suffering and death He was to endure may make it easier to start our Lent a bit late or, if nothing else, to start next year’s Lent with more commitment. Jesus Himself wasn’t immune to the hardships of suffering.

Let us bow our heads in Prayer.

Father God, we thank you and glorify you for giving us the 6 Covenants, the last of which includes all of us faithful throughout the world. We thank you for sending us Jesus so that we get to know You through your Son. Please help us, we ask, to live up to our Covenantal promises and thereby share an eternity with you in Heaven. In Jesus’ name, our Savior, we pray. Amen