Saturday in Lent 5

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord’, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more. (Jeremiah 31:31-34)

This passage concerning a new covenant is possibly my favorite passage from Jeremiah, and how refreshing it is after the doom and gloom passages we have been reading in recent weeks!

The point of all religions and spiritual paths is transformation. The imagery used in this passage is having the purposes of God written on our heart, the ultimate reality becoming interiorized. What God wants, we will now want. As God loves, we will now love.

Sins forgotten is an image that allows us to transcend the past. Something more than we have even known is possible. Something new can emerge from what has grown old. Hope is possible because change is possible. We do not have to remain stuck.

Pretty powerful stuff.



May be we all be unbound from that which would trap us and hold us in death.

O Lord, in your goodness you bestow abundant graces on your elect: Look with favor, we entreat you, upon those who in these Lenten days are being prepared for Holy Baptism, and grant them the help of your protection; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

--the BB