Thursday of Week 18 of Ordinary Time – First Reading
Commentary on Jeremiah 31:31-34
Today we have our final reading from Jeremiah, although there are still more than 20 chapters of the book left. This passage is regarded as the high point of the prophet’s words with its promise of a new covenant. And we need to remember that this was written 600 years before the coming of Christ and the New Testament or Covenant he brought.
The Jerusalem Bible describes the significance of the passage:
“In verses 31-34 Jeremiah reaches its highest peak of spirituality. The old covenant has been violated, and the attempted reform under Josiah has been short-lived: it is evident now that God has other plans. A disaster will ensue, leaving only a ‘remnant’ of the nation, and then an everlasting covenant will be made, a covenant as in the days of Noah. The former perspectives remain: man’s obedience to the Law, and the divine presence bestowing peace and material prosperity, this ideal being summed up in the formula: ‘I will be your God and you shall be my people’. But the covenant is ‘new’ in three respects:
- God’s spontaneous forgiveness of sin;
- individual responsibility and retribution;
- interiorisation of religion.”
The Law is no longer to be a code regulating external activity, but an inspiration working on the heart of man. Now, under the influence of the spirit of God, the Law gives man a new heart capable of ‘knowing’ God. This new and eternal covenant, proclaimed again both by Ezekiel and by the closing chapters of Isaiah, is also operative in Psalm 51, and will be inaugurated by the sacrifice of Christ. Subsequently, the apostles will proclaim its fulfilment.
This passage is the longest sequence of Old Testament verses to be quoted in its entirety in the New Testament. It is found in the Letter to the Hebrews (8:8-12) and quoted again in part in Hebrews 10:16-17. This is the only passage (in v 31) in the whole of the Old Testament where the term “new covenant” (or “testament”) appears. That ‘new covenant’ we now recognise in the new relationship with God established by Jesus Christ through his Paschal Mystery.
Jeremiah begins by proclaiming that “the days are surely coming”, a phrase that often refers to the Messianic era and, for us, there is a strong Messianic tone to the passage.
In those “days” God:
…will make a new covenant with the house of Israel [in the north] and the house of Judah [in the south]…
These will once again be united as one kingdom. “New covenant” is a term which is picked up in the New Testament more than once by Paul in his letters and in the Letter to the Hebrews. We know now that, while the old covenant was made solemn by the pouring of the blood of sacrificial animals, the new covenant will be made solemn by the blood of Christ poured out on the cross. The new covenant will differ in many significant ways from what will henceforth be called the ‘old’ or ‘first’ covenant made at Sinai.
In those days Jeremiah says, in a lovely phrase, God “took them by the hand”, echoing the beautiful words of Hosea:
…I took them up in my arms…
led them with cords of human kindness,
with bands of love.
I was to them like those
who lift infants to their cheeks. (Hos 11:3-4)
Yahweh took his people to liberate them from the slavery of Egypt, but as we have seen many times in these readings, it was they, not God, who broke that covenant and, as a result, they experienced many hardships. They would have to learn by painful experience that the Lord and only the Lord was their true ‘master’ (the word ‘master’ here may also be translated ‘husband’).
Then comes a description of this ‘new’ covenant to be made with the house of Israel, now seeing both kingdoms as one. It will not be simply a legal code, like that of Moses, to be observed by external acts:
I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts…
It was to effectively govern their lives, in contrast to the ineffectiveness of merely presenting it in writing, though inscribed on durable stone.
I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
The terms of the old covenant remain, but it is superseded by the new which will fulfil and go far beyond what was understood by the old. It will be a law totally assimilated into their very being so that its observance will flow naturally in all their words and actions. The old covenant is not abrogated; rather it becomes fully internalised.
Jesus will spell this out, especially in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel, when he says that he comes not to abolish, but to fulfil the Law. And only then will God’s covenant statement be really fulfilled.
Then:
No longer shall they teach one another or say to each other…
In other words, there will no longer be those who are ignorant of God and his will for their lives. True knowledge of the Lord will be shared by all – young and old, the peasant and the powerful.
Because:
…they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest…
Using the word ‘know’ in its fullest sense, it indicates a deep, intimate and direct knowing and not simply an intellectual ‘knowing about’.
The consequence of this deep interpersonal relationship is that:
I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.
The very mutuality of the relationship will result in perfect reconciliation and forgiveness and the covenant promise will be fully realised:
I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
There will ensue that unity between God and his people of which Jesus will speak at the Last Supper:
I in them and you in me… (John 17:23)
It is for us to live the terms of this new covenant to the full. It is easy for Christians to fall back on an external living of their faith, seeing its observance in the keeping of external rules and regulations. We need to learn how to ‘know’ God in the deepest recesses of our hearts, to find him in every experience, to be aware of his unconditional love and to communicate that love to all those around us.
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Thursday of Week 18 of Ordinary Time – Gospel
Commentary on Matthew 16:13-23
We now reach a high point in Matthew’s narrative. More than any of the other Gospels, his is a Gospel of the Church. (Mark, in comparison, emphasises discipleship; Luke, the communication of God’s love and compassion; and John, unity with God through Jesus.)
We find Jesus and his disciples in the district of Caesarea Philippi. This is not the fine city of Caesarea built by Herod the Great on the shore of the Mediterranean. It was a town, rebuilt by Herod’s son Philip, who named it after the emperor Tiberius Caesar and himself. It lay just to the north of the Sea of Galilee and near the slopes of Mount Hermon. It had originally been called Paneas, after the Greek god Pan and is known today as Banias.
The area was predominantly pagan, dominated by Rome. In a sense, therefore, it was both an unexpected yet fitting place for Jesus’ identity to be proclaimed. He was, after all, not just for his own people, but for the whole world.
Jesus begins by asking his disciples who people think he really is. They respond with some of the speculations that were going round: he was John the Baptist resurrected from the dead (Herod’s view, for instance), or Elijah (whose return was expected to herald the imminent coming of the Messiah), or Jeremiah or some other of the great prophets.
The Jews at this time expected a revival of the prophetic spirit which had been extinct since Malachi. John was regarded by many of the people as a prophet, although he denied that he was the expected prophet, often thought to be Elijah returned. The early Christians saw Jesus as a prophet, but with the appearance of prophecy as a charism in their communities, the term was dropped in his case.
Interestingly, the people did not seem to think that Jesus himself was on a par with these ‘greats’ of their history. We do tend to undervalue the leaders of our own time when compared with those of the past.
Jesus goes on to ask:
But who do you say that I am?
It was a moment of truth, a very special moment in his disciples’ relationship with their Master. Simon speaks up:
You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.
It is a huge step forward for Simon and his companions. As we shall see, it is not yet a total recognition of his identity or mission. But Jesus is no mere rabbi, no mere prophet, but rather the long-awaited Messiah and Saviour King who would deliver Israel. It is an exciting moment in their relationship with him. And it is only in Matthew that Simon Peter calls him “Son of God”.
The focus now shifts immediately to Simon. He is praised for his insight but Jesus makes clear that it comes from divine inspiration and is not a mere deduction. A ‘mystery’, in the Scripture sense, is being uncovered.
And now comes the great promise. Simon from now on is to be called “Peter”, a play on the word for ‘rock’ (kepha in Aramaic, petra/petros in Greek), for he will become the rock on which the “church” will be built—a rock which will stand firm against all attacks on it. This promise must have sounded very daring at the time it was written, but throughout more than 2,000 years it has again and again been vindicated. ‘Peter’, in either its Aramaic or Hebrew form, was not a previously known personal name.
The term ‘church’ only appears twice in Matthew and not at all in the other three Gospels. The Hebrew word qahal, which in Greek is rendered as ekklesia, means ‘an assembly called together’. It was used often in the Old Testament to indicate the community of the Chosen People.
According to the Jerusalem Bible:
“By using this term ekklesia side by side with ‘Kingdom of Heaven’, Jesus shows that this eschatological community (community of the ‘end-times’) is to have its beginnings here on earth in the form of an organised society whose leader he now appoints.”
And Peter is given power and authority, the “keys of the kingdom of heaven”, all that he will need to make the Kingdom a reality. His authority and that of the ‘church’ is the authority of Jesus himself. Whatever Peter and the church formally decide is immediately ratified by God; they are his appointed agents.
Lastly, they are strictly ordered not to tell anyone else that Jesus is the Messiah. The people are not ready to hear it. The people have their own expectations, which are very different from the Messiah that Jesus is going to be. The disciples themselves have a totally wrong idea, as becomes immediately clear in what follows.
From the moment that they recognise Jesus as Messiah, he begins to prepare them for what is going to happen:
[The Son of Man] must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised.
This is the first of three ominous predictions.
After the euphoria of knowing their Master was the Messiah, all their dreams and hopes are shattered by these terrible revelations. It is hard for us to imagine the impact these words must have had.
Peter, who had just covered himself in glory and been appointed leader, almost patronisingly takes Jesus aside, saying:
God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.
For him and the others this was an unthinkable scenario for the Messiah for whom they were all waiting. How much more shocked Peter must have been at Jesus’ reaction:
Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me, for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.
The man who was just now called the Rock is accused of being Satan’s advocate! Instead of being a rock of stability, he is seen as a stumbling block in the way of Jesus.
Peter is seen as doing the very work of the devil in trying to divert Jesus from the way he was called to go, the way in which God’s love would be revealed to us, the way in which we would be liberated for the life of the Kingdom.
It will take time before Peter and the others both understand and accept the idea of a suffering and dying Messiah. It will not happen until after the Resurrection. Before that the “Rock” will be guilty of a shameful betrayal of the Man who put such trust in him.
We too should ask ourselves to what extent we accept Jesus the rejected, suffering, dying and rising Messiah.
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