Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God)
For: Friday, January 22, 2021
2nd Week in Ordinary Time
Optional Memorial: St Vincent, Deacon and Martyr
Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children (U.S.A.)
From: Hebrews 8:6-13
Christ Is High Priest of a New Covenant, Which Replaces the Old (Continuation)
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[6] But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry which is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. [7] For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion for a second.
[8] For he finds fault with them when he says: "The days will come, says the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; [9] not like the covenant I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they did not continue in my covenant, and so I paid no heed to them, says the Lord. [10] This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. [11] And they shall not teach every one his fellow or every one his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for all shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest. [12] For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more."
[13] In speaking of a new covenant he treats the first as obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
*********************************************************** Commentary:
3-6. To compare the earthly and heavenly tabernacles, the author resorts to analogy and metaphor, which is all that he can do. Bearing this in mind, one should not interpret the words of this passage as meaning that Jesus Christ consummated his sacrifice only in heaven, for the sacrifice of Calvary happened only once and was complete in itself. What this passage is saying is that, in heaven, Christ, the eternal Priest, continuously presents to the Father the fruits of the Cross. In the New Covenant there is only one sacrifice--that of Jesus Christ on Calvary; this single sacrifice is renewed in an unbloody manner every day in the sacrifice of the Mass; there Jesus Christ the only Priest of the New Law -- immolates and offers, by means of priests who are his ministers, the same victim (body and blood) which was immolated in a bloody manner once and for all on the Cross.
7-12. The comparison between the two covenants, the Old made with Moses and written on stone, and the New, engraved on the minds and hearts of the faithful (cf. 2 Cor 3:3; Heb 10:16, 17) is developed with the help of a quotation from Jeremiah (Jer 31:31-34), where the prophet announces the spiritual alliance of Yahweh with his people. Jeremiah's words, quoted from the Greek translation (very close to the original Hebrew), refer directly to the restoration of the Jews after the Exile. Now that the chosen people have been purified by suffering they are fit to be truly the people of God: "I will be their God, and they shall be my people"; this promise of intimate friendship is the core of the prophecy. That is what it means when it says the Law will be written on the minds and hearts of all, and all -- even the least – shall know God. It may be that Jeremiah sensed the messianic restoration that lay beyond the restoration of the chosen people on its return from exile; certainly we can see that this oracle finds its complete fulfillment only with the New Covenant: the return from Babylon was merely an additional signal/symbol of the perfect Covenant which Christ would establish. For it is in that New Covenant that God truly forgives sins and remembers them no more.
The Old Covenant is said not to have been faultless, or sinless. This does not mean it was bad; rather; as St Thomas explains, it was powerless to atone for sins, it did not provide people with the grace to avoid committing sins, it simply showed people how to recognize sins, those who lived under the Old Law continued to be subject to sin (cf. Commentary on Heb., 7, 2).
But is the new covenant only with the Jews as the letter to the hebrews seems to indicate?