Celebrate the new covenant with God

April 6, 2003 -- Fifth Sunday of Lent

	Fr. Richard Ver Bust

An event can have the same meaning even when looked at from different perspectives. On this the last Sunday before Holy Week, we reflect on the covenant we believe God has made with us.

Lent
• Lent-related articles  • 2003 Lenten Wish List (3/7 issue)  • Lenten rules (2/28 issue)

We can look at that covenant from a future perspective and from one that looks back at its establishment. Yet the reality is that the covenant from either perspective emphasizes God's love for us.

Our first reading is taken from the prophet Jeremiah. He lived in one of the most difficult times in Israel's history. He was considered to be a traitor for advocating non-resistance to the enemy. He preached a message of dependence upon God. Jeremiah took a central idea in Israel's theology and gave it a new twist.

Since Israel believed God had made a covenant with her at Mt. Sinai, the Ten Words or Ten Commandments were believed to be part of what she must do to live up to her responsibilities to God. The covenant made God the God of Israel and Israel God's people. Yet it was easy to think that the Law was simply rules written on stone tablets that must be obeyed externally. Jeremiah spoke of a covenant that was deeper and called for an internal response. He preached about a covenant written on people's hearts. This covenant would require an internal commitment and, a transformation of the people. It would challenge the people to greater allegiance to God.

The psalm for today is one which begs for mercy because of guilt. The psalmist realizes how deeply God has been offended and seeks God's forgiveness and mercy. It recognizes God's goodness as the basis for this forgiveness. Like Jeremiah, he seeks to emphasize that the person who seeks this forgiveness must be transformed. The person's heart must be cleansed and filled with a spirit that will change that person. The psalmist agrees to teach this message to others that they too may know God's love.

The reading from the Letter to the Hebrews presents to us a meditation on Christ's sufferings and how through those sufferings we can be saved. The author believed that Christ learned something very important in suffering and that is, that one must accept God's will. It is obedience to the will of God that characterized what Christ did. It is that same obedience that won for us the possibility of salvation.

Finally, the Gospel reading today, taken from John, helps us deepen our perception of Jesus as the Christ. We have heard again and again during Lent the meaning of Christ for us. John, the author, seeks to help his church community understand Christ's role in his ministry and work for salvation. John speaks about the "hour' that Christ faced. It is an hour that will lead to his glorification but only through his suffering and death. John uses the metaphor of a grain of wheat to help us understand. In those days, they believed a grain had to die that it might be transformed and come out as a new life.

Christ's death, looked at from John's perspective, brought about the new covenant that Jeremiah believed would come. It was a covenant that was not easily established. The price was Christ's death. It is that covenant that we celebrate. We have a special relationship with God because of it. Now we must find its meaning and life within our hearts.

(Fr. Ver Bust holds the title of professor emeritus in religious studies at St. Norbert College, De Pere.)