The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today reassure us of the Covenant that God creates in our heart and reminds us of our mission to live as witness to revelation of our role in the Church.
In the reading from the Prophet Jeremiah, God announces a New Covenant.
* [31:31–34] The new covenant is an occasional prophetic theme, beginning with Hosea. According to Jeremiah, (a) it lasts forever; (b) its law (torah) is written in human hearts; (c) it gives everyone true knowledge of God, making additional instruction (torah) unnecessary. The Dead Sea Scroll community claimed they were partners in a “new covenant.” The New Testament presents the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth as inaugurating a new covenant open to anyone who professes faith in Jesus the Christ. Cf. Lk 22:20; 1 Cor 11:25;
Heb 8:8–12. Know the LORD: cf. note on 22:15–16. (Jeremiah, CHAPTER 31 | USCCB, n.d.)
Psalm 51 is a Prayer for Cleansing and Pardon
* [Psalm 51] A lament, the most famous of the seven Penitential Psalms, prays for the removal of the personal and social disorders that sin has brought. The poem has two parts of approximately equal length: Ps 51:3–10 and Ps 51:11–19, and a conclusion in Ps 51:20–21. The two parts interlock by repetition of “blot out” in the first verse of each section (Ps 51:3, 11), of “wash (away)” just after the first verse of each section (Ps 51:4) and just before the last verse (Ps 51:9) of the first section, and of “heart,” “God,” and “spirit” in Ps 51:12, 19. The first part (Ps 51:3–10) asks deliverance from sin, not just a past act but its emotional, physical, and social consequences. The second part (Ps 51:11–19) seeks something more profound than wiping the slate clean: nearness to God, living by the spirit of God (Ps 51:12–13), like the relation between God and people described in Jer 31:33–34. Nearness to God brings joy and the authority to teach sinners (Ps 51:15–16). Such proclamation is better than offering sacrifice (Ps 51:17–19). The last two verses express the hope that God’s good will toward those who are cleansed and contrite will prompt him to look favorably on the acts of worship offered in the Jerusalem Temple (Ps 51:19 [20–21]). (Psalms, PSALM 51 | USCCB, n.d.)
In the Gospel of Matthew, Peter makes a Declaration about Jesus, who foretells His Death and Resurrection.
* [16:13–20] The Marcan confession of Jesus as Messiah, made by Peter as spokesman for the other disciples (Mk 8:27–29; cf. also Lk 9:18–20), is modified significantly here. The confession is of Jesus both as Messiah and as Son of the living God (Mt 16:16). Jesus’ response, drawn principally from material peculiar to Matthew, attributes the confession to a divine revelation granted to Peter alone (Mt 16:17) and makes him the rock on which Jesus will build his church (Mt 16:18) and the disciple whose authority in the church on earth will be confirmed in heaven, i.e., by God (Mt 16:19).
* [16:21–23] This first prediction of the passion follows Mk 8:31–33 in the main and serves as a corrective to an understanding of Jesus’ messiahship as solely one of glory and triumph. By his addition of from that time on (Mt 16:21) Matthew has emphasized that Jesus’ revelation of his coming suffering and death marks a new phase of the gospel. Neither this nor the two later passion predictions (Mt 17:22–23; 20:17–19) can be taken as sayings that, as they stand, go back to Jesus himself. However, it is probable that he foresaw that his mission would entail suffering and perhaps death, but was confident that he would ultimately be vindicated by God (see Mt 26:29). (Matthew, CHAPTER 16 | USCCB, n.d.)
Kent Beausoleil, S.J. wonders what was going through Jesus’ mind as he hung there on that Cross. Seemingly, his earthly ministry failed, the people did not fully get it, we do not fully get it, but we should. Jesus hung there commending his whole life, the joys, the deep friendships, the healing, preaching, teaching, and call for conversion, the good, good work that was his mission.
Are we not called to fully commend our entire life, whether you are nineteen or ninety, not only the many crosses but also the divine love we have encountered and experienced throughout our life from this God who created us out of love, for love. Anything less and we are not in an honest and integrated, and full relationship, giving God, as Jesus, did every fiber of his very being, with our God whose love is, was, and always has been there for us. We need to see and feel the light of God’s love, and then in action, not just words, be the light. It’s only love after all! (Beausoleil, n.d.)
Don Schwager quotes “Only by hope,” by Basil the Great, 329-379 A.D.
"'Turn, O my soul, into your rest: for the Lord has been bountiful to you' (Psalm 114:7). The brave contestant applies to himself the consoling words, very much like to Paul, when he says: 'I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. For the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice.' These things the prophet also says to himself: Since you have fulfilled sufficiently the course of this life, turn then to your rest, 'for the Lord has been bountiful to you.' For, eternal rest lies before those who have struggled through the present life observant of the laws, a rest not given in payment for a debt owed for their works but provided as a grace of the munificent God for those who have hoped in him." (excerpt from HOMILIES 22) (Schwager, n.d.)
The Word Among Us Meditation on Psalm 51:12-15, 18-19 comments that David’s trust in God’s mercy in our responsorial psalm foreshadows the new covenant that Jeremiah prophesied in today’s first reading. He promised that God’s people would know him and walk in his ways. He would write his law “upon their hearts” and would “remember their sin no more” (Jeremiah 31:33, 34).
Are you carrying burdens from past mistakes? Are they causing you to doubt your identity as a forgiven child of God? Let David’s prayer remind you that God will never spurn “a heart contrite and humbled” (Psalm 51:19). Instead, he will take you tenderly into his arms and say, “Neither do I condemn you” (John 8:11). He will never turn you away.
“Lord, help me to believe that I am who you say I am.” (Meditation on Psalm 51:12-15, 18-19, n.d.)
Friar Jude Winkler underlines the message from Jeremiah that the Covenant is written on the people’s heart. Near Caesarea Philippi, Peter declares a revelation about Jesus as Son of the Living God and receives the keys that connect to the rabbinic authority over life, death, and precipitation. Friar Jude reminds us the authority to loose and bind was later applied to the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, shares the comments of Dutch Jewish writer Etty Hillesum (1914–1943) who expressed her love for life while facing imprisonment under German occupation.
“Reposing in oneself” … probably best expresses my own love of life: I repose in myself. And that part of myself, that deepest and richest part in which I repose, is what I call “God.” In Tide’s [Hillesum’s Christian friend] diary I often read, “Take him gently into Your arms, Father.” And that is how I feel, always and without cease: “as if I were lying in Your arms, oh God, so protected and sheltered and so steeped in eternity.” As if every breath I take were filled with it and as if my smallest acts and words had a deeper source and a deeper meaning.…
The reality of death has become a definite part of my life; my life has, so to speak, been extended by death … by accepting destruction as part of life and no longer wasting my energies on fear of death or the refusal to acknowledge its inevitability. It sounds paradoxical: by excluding death from our life we cannot live a full life, and by admitting death into our life we enlarge and enrich [life]. [3] (Rohr, n.d.)
We reflect on the commission that arises from our Baptismal anointing as priest, prophet, and leader to live in response to God’s Covenant and the revelation of Jesus as the Christ.
References
Beausoleil, K. (n.d.). Daily Reflection Of Creighton University's Online Ministries. OnlineMinistries. Retrieved August 8, 2024, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/080824.html
Jeremiah, CHAPTER 31 | USCCB. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved August 8, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/jeremiah/31?31
Matthew, CHAPTER 16 | USCCB. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved August 8, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/16?13
Meditation on Psalm 51:12-15, 18-19. (n.d.). The Word Among Us: Homepage. Retrieved August 8, 2024, from https://wau.org/meditations/2024/08/08/1043752/
Psalms, PSALM 51 | USCCB. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved August 8, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/51?12
Rohr, R. (n.d.). Daily Meditations — Center for Action and Contemplation. Saying Yes to Life. Retrieved August 8, 2024, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/saying-yes-to-life/
Schwager, D. (n.d.). You Are the Christ - the Son of the Living God. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved August 8, 2024, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2024&date=aug8
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