Revealed in the struggle

The renewal of the Covenant with the House of Israel and the House of Judah which is proclaimed in the text from the Prophet Jeremiah from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today is declared to be different from the original Covenant under which Yahweh led the Israelites out of Egypt. This revelation about God will be written on their hearts, where Friar Jude Winkler comments was the place of reasoning and thought in the understanding of the ancient Hebrews. The prescriptions on behaviour which then and now are difficult to obey and tend to be surface and barely sufficient are replaced by a path which calls us to join the psalmist in the prayer for a clean heart and a steadfast spirit. Chas Kestermeier SJ compares this awareness of the Divine to being completely filled with the Holy Spirit and living like Mary. The Gospel of Matthew takes us to the region of Caesarea Philippi in the north, near the source of the Jordan where pagan worship of Pan occurred and where Father Robert Barron opens his video series Catholicism with the question in this Gospel passage from Jesus to Peter about “Who do you say I am?” Jesus reveals that the answer which Peter gives is based on a revelation to him by the Father. It is written on his heart. The promise of Jeremiah and the image described by Chas Kestermeier SJ are not here yet. Jesus describes His suffering and death to Peter in this Gospel and the “Rock” becomes a tempter who Friar Jude comments must be convinced later after Easter to take up his cross like Jesus to struggle in response to the Covenant written on his heart. Peter leads us into the truth about how we all will come to the peace understood by Jeremiah.