5th Sunday of Lent 2024
Fr. Ben Riley
This Summer, in mid-June, our youth group is taking a trip to southern Indiana to my alma mater, Saint Meinrad Seminary and Monastery. This beautiful Benedictine monastery hosts a youth leadership conference called “One Bread, One Cup” every summer. It’s a five-day retreat where the youth attend seminars on catechesis, liturgical and spiritual formation, and theological reflection. It’s also a great opportunity for our Catholic youth to interact and form relationships with other Catholic youth from around the country. It is very inspiring to see so many young people on fire with the love of Jesus Christ.
I am going to attend the retreat with the youth group this year to celebrate Mass and hear confessions for the participants. I am very excited about our youth having the opportunity to attend this retreat. However, I would be lying if I didn’t say that I also have ulterior motives. I am also very excited to visit some of the monks and my professors from Saint Meinrad.
As we all know, throughout our time in school, there are some really excellent teachers that we will never forget because they made learning fun and really cared for their students. But there are also teachers we will never forget because of how bad they were. Father Harry Hagin is somewhere in the middle of this scale. He is a priest and monk at Saint Meinrad, and he teaches the Old Testament classes in the seminary. He is about 120 years old, and he is the kind of guy who has one of those unique voices that is easy to imitate. He talks like this, and before every class, he would pray like this, “Lord, you are so tricky, help us to be tricked by you, so we may be tricked into serving you. Amen.” And the rest of are looking around like, “Did you hear that, God is tricking us into serving him?”
One thing I’ll say about Father Harry is that he is a very holy man, and he has a direct telephone line to God. One day in class there was a bunch of noise outside the window from guys who were mowing the lawn. And in the middle of his lecture, Father Harry stopped, bowed his head and prayed, “Lord, make them stop.” And I kid you not, immediately, they stopped. It was incredible! So, I love Father Harry, and I’m looking forward to seeing him this summer. But to be honest, I didn’t learn very much from his class. He is the kind of guy who is a master in his field, truly he is an Old Testament scholar, and he is one of the best in the country. However, just because he is very smart does not mean he is good at teaching what he knows to a class. That’s why the only thing I remember from Father Harry’s class is the definition of a covenant. I remember this because he made us write it at the top of all our tests. Are you ready? A covenant is a relationship, sealed by an oath, with mutual responsibilities and mutual benefits. I’ll say that again. A covenant is a relationship, sealed by an oath, with mutual responsibilities and mutual benefits.
This week for our readings, as we are preparing for the climax of the celebration of Holy Week, the Church gives us some heavy-hitting readings. First, we come to this pivotal verse from the prophet Jerimiah. Here is what the prophet says, “The days are coming says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel and the House of Judah.” Now, I am glad that Father Harry made me remember the definition of a covenant. It was Saint Irenaeus who long ago said, “The best way to read the Old Testament is in terms of the covenants.” The covenants that God made with his people are sprinkled throughout the Old Testament: the covenant made with Adam, the covenant with Noah, the covenant with Abraham, the covenant with Moses, and the covenant with David. What are these covenants? They are not contracts; not an exchange of goods or services, but more like a pledge of life. I like Father Harry’s definition, but it’s a little complicated. The basic form of a covenant in the Old Testament is something like this, “I will be your God, and you will be my people.”
Now, from even the most cursory reading of the Old Testament we know that very often these covenants were violated. Hence, “I will make a new covenant.” See, what Jeremiah is envisioning here is the day when, in a definitive way, God will establish this relationship permanently with his people. Now here’s something very important when talking about covenants; they are almost always ratified in the Old Testament by blood. So, think of Noah, you know when God makes the covenant, and the rainbow in the sky is the sign of it, but it is sealed by a blood sacrifice that Noah makes. Think of Abraham when he makes his great covenant with the Lord. The Lord tells him to slice these various animals in two. Abraham then passes through the severed sections, in this very dramatic scene. The idea was that Abraham was saying, “Let this happen to me, may I be sliced in two, if I violate this covenant.” All of the covenants, they were sealed in blood.
Think of Moses and the covenant of the ten commandments, Sinai’s covenant. How is it sealed? Well, with this great sacrifice of animals. And while part of the blood is splashed on the altar, the other part is splashed upon the people. This is what we celebrate at the Easter Vigil Mass, in the sprinkling rite with holy water. The symbolism is this exchange of blood. Remember, blood in the ancient tradition meant life. Israel, by the sacrifice of these animals, was willing to shed its blood for God, and God in turn, is shedding His own blood for Israel.
Finally, consider the great covenant with David which is sealed by thousands upon thousands of sacrifices in the Jerusalem temple. What was that but the pouring out of blood? Here is the same idea, the one making the sacrifice is saying, “May this happen to me, the death of this animal, may this happen to me, if I break this covenant.” And the blood poured out symbolizes my lifeblood, poured out for you Lord, the blood then being sprinkled upon the people.
Going back now to Jeremiah 31:31. “The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel. I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.” Okay, the Church wants us to meditate upon Jeremiah 31:3. Now fast forward six centuries later, to this young rabbi, Jesus Christ, with his 12 disciples in the upper room celebrating the Passover meal, the Last Supper. He says, “This is my body, given up for you.” And then over that second cup he says, “This is the chalice of my blood, do this in remembrance of me.” The blood. Listen to the language of this new and eternal covenant being formed: “Which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.” Nobody hearing him at that table that night would have missed the reference these words were making to Jeremiah 31:31.
What he is talking about is the new covenant that Jeremiah predicted: this ultimate sharing of blood between God and his holy people. Jesus, through the chalice of his blood of the new and eternal covenant, poured out for you and for many, for the forgiveness of sins. He’s offering this blood for them to drink. Moses indeed splashed the blood on the people. The high priest at Yom Kippur indeed comes out of the temple to splash the blood on the people. What’s happening here? God himself is offering his lifeblood for his people to drink, to take into themselves, to become their life. What Jesus of Nazareth is saying here is, “Jeremiah 31:31, it has been fulfilled.” And watch, where does the law of God go? Now as the Church drinks in the blood of Christ, it’s not out there anymore written on stone tablets. It’s not just there as a moral challenge. Jesus is himself the law of God. Jesus himself is the Torah, made flesh. Therefore, when we drink his blood, God is writing his law upon our hearts.
This is the last thing. Every time you attend the Mass, think of all the nice things about the Mass. The music is nice; it’s a nice time to get together, to celebrate with our community, a nice time to hear the word of God, to sing together, and yeah, that’s all great. I agree with all those things. But that’s not the heart of the matter. That’s not why we are here.
Behold the Lamb of God, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those who are called to the supper of the lamb. And then one by one, people come forward to eat and drink the body and blood of Jesus. “The days are coming, says the Lord. I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel. it will not be like the old covenant written on stone, rather, I will write my law in their hearts.” It comes true, everybody, every single time you come forward and you eat and drink the body and blood of Jesus. The Lord is writing his law, his covenant upon your heart. That’s why we come to Mass: to worship and to be fed. Do you want to be happy? Do you want to find the point and purpose of life? Come, come to Jesus and stay with him. Eat of his flesh and drink of his blood. Bring his law literally inside your body. In this act of worship, God’s great revelation comes to its fulfillment.
And may God bless you.