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Commentary on Isaiah 2:1-5 (Years B and C) and Isaiah 4:2-6 (Year A)

Now that we are entering the season of Advent, we are making our preparations to welcome the coming of the Son of God among us as one of us. The Child, born in such obscure surroundings, will become the Light of the Nations.

Our First Reading is taken from the early part of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, as will be the case for much of the Advent season. Depending on the Church Year (A, B or C), the verses will come from one of two sections in Isaiah. This commentary reflects on the verses starting with Isaiah 2:1. It begins with the lovely prophecy:

In days to come
the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest of the mountains
and shall be raised above the hills;
all the nations shall stream to it.
Many peoples shall come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.”

In the ancient Near East, temples were seen as the places where gods lived. Frequently too, temples were built on the tops of mountains. Isaiah is primarily thinking of the Temple in Jerusalem to which he sees peoples from all over coming to pay homage to the one true God. For us, of course, at this season we are thinking of the Temple of the New Covenant, which is the Incarnate Word of God.

Eventually, he will be raised up in glory and, in a very different sense, will be:

…highest of the mountains
and shall be raised above the hills.

And his is a Temple to which over the centuries “all the nations shall stream to it”. Who would ever have thought, in those early days of Christianity, that the fellowship would one day number more than two billion people? Such a number was not in any vocabulary in those days!

For out of Zion shall go forth instruction
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

In this context, Mount Zion and Jerusalem are one and the same.

After the disciples of Jesus were filled with his Spirit, following the resurrection and glorification of Jesus, the word of the Lord did begin to go out from Jerusalem until it spread to every corner of the world. Jerusalem is no longer the centre, because wherever there are Christian communities, there is the Temple, the very presence of the Risen Christ. And the message that is going out is the message of love and peace. It is a message that has been heard by many, but needs to be heard a lot more.

He shall judge between the nations
and shall arbitrate for many peoples;
they shall beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation.

Indeed there are nations which have gone a long way to being havens of peace and justice and which have reduced their weapons to a minimum. Unfortunately, there are still many who think that only by violence can problems be solved, and the arms industry still thrives.

As Christians we have a lot of work to do to bring the spirit of Christ and the gospel into our world. To do that effectively we need to hear and respond to the invitation with which our reading closes:

O house of Jacob,
come, let us walk
in the light of the Lord!

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Commentary on Matthew 12:38-42

Today’s passage follows two others, which we have not read. In the first, Jesus is accused of doing what he does by the power of Satan (Matt 12:22-32). This is an accusation which he easily shows is self-contradictory and makes no sense. In the second, he says that a tree which is rotten inside cannot produce good fruit (Matt 12:33-37). Goodness comes from a person’s interior. The words are directed at his accusers whom he more than once accuses of being hypocrites—pious and law-abiding on the outside, but full of malice inside.

It is these same people who approach him today. It is difficult to know their mood as they ask Jesus for a sign. Is it a genuine request for Jesus to indicate the source of his authority and power, or is it a hostile demand for Jesus to present his credentials?

In response, Jesus first says that:

An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

Yes, “evil and adulterous”, because for anyone with an open mind, Jesus has been giving nothing but signs ever since he began his public life. The ordinary people have been full of praise and amazement at what Jesus is doing and say:

A great prophet has risen among us!…God has visited his people! (Luke 7:16)

But these leaders, blinded by their own prejudice, are even saying that the teaching, exorcisms and healings of Jesus are the work of Satan.

In addition to all this, they are going to get an unmistakable sign of who Jesus really is. They will be given “the sign of the prophet Jonah”:

For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so for three days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth.

This is a clear reference to Jesus’ resurrection—the conclusive sign of his identity and power.

Mention of Jonah leads Jesus to say that:

…people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah, and indeed something [i.e. Jesus] greater than Jonah is here!

Similarly:

The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and indeed something greater than Solomon is here!

This of course also refers to Jesus, who is greater by far than Solomon.

We, too, have the privilege of listening to Jesus and we know the sign of his resurrection. Is it not possible that there are many people around us who, not knowing Jesus, but following the guidance of their consciences, will find themselves going before us into the Kingdom?

Complacency is probably one of our biggest temptations: “I am good enough; I observe the basic requirements of my religion.” Is that all that Jesus expects of me?

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Commentary on Luke 13:31-35

Today Jesus is warned by some Pharisees to leave the area where he is teaching. The reason they give is that Herod is after him. This is Herod Antipas, a son of Herod the Great, whom we have already met. The region of Perea was part of his territory as tetrarch. The warning could, of course, have been just a ploy on the part of the Pharisees to get rid of Jesus by frightening him in this way.

At the same time, there could have been something in the threat because Herod had already executed John the Baptist, although there is no evidence that Jesus spoke against Herod in the same way that offended Herod’s second wife.

In any case, Jesus is not moved. He knows that his life is part of a larger plan. He will do his work, including the healing of people and their liberation from evil forces. When the time is ripe, and not before, he will face his passion and death. He will “finish [his] work”—a double meaning about both the end of his life on earth and his being brought to perfection through his suffering and death—an idea explicitly put in the letter to the Hebrews (10:36-38).

Further, it has been ordained that he will face his death in Jerusalem and nowhere else. Herod is not going to change any of that.

Then, Jesus goes on to pray for the city that will be the scene of his death. It is a city that has many times in the past mistreated and killed those sent by God to bring his message. Jesus speaks tenderly:

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings…

But they reject him, as they rejected so many prophets before.

He foretells something that must have seemed to his hearers both blasphemous and impossible:

…your house [the Temple] is left to you desolate.

Yet, just 40 years after Jesus’ death, the Temple will meet its destruction, never again to be rebuilt.

Finally, he tells them that:

…you will not see me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’

This could refer to his triumphal entry into Jerusalem at the beginning of Holy Week or to his final coming as Judge and Lord of all.

Our lives too are in God’s hands and nothing will happen to us which is in conflict with God’s wishes and God’s plans. Ultimately, everything is for our well-being. But, let us be on the alert to recognise the Lord coming into our lives often in very unexpected ways and through very unexpected people. Some of those we reject may be bringing—even unknown to themselves—a message from God that we need to hear and follow.

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Commentary on Matt 2:13-18 Read Fourth day in the Octave of Christmas – Feast of the Holy Innocents – Gospel »

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Commentary on Matthew 9:32-37

We come today to the end of the section recounting ten miracles of Jesus (chaps 8-9). The last miracle described is that of a man whose deafness arises from his being possessed by a demon. It follows immediately the cure of two blind men, a story which we did not read and which is told again by Matthew in chapter 20. It seems to correspond to the healing of the blind man Bartimaeus in Mark (chap 10), although there are significant differences.

The man is brought to Jesus by the people. Jesus drives out the demon and the man immediately is able to speak. There is a double reaction. The people are astounded:

Never has anything like this been seen in Israel.

The implications of Jesus’ divine origins are very clear. On the other hand, Pharisees were saying:

By the ruler of the demons he casts out the demons.

Elsewhere Jesus will show the absurd illogicality of that charge.

Stories of the blind, deaf, and mute in the Gospels always have a deeper meaning. Far more serious than physical blindness, deafness and an inability to speak are being spiritually blind, deaf and mute. The Pharisees in the Gospels represent such people, and we see it happening in this story. They are blind because they cannot see or do not want to see God at work in Jesus. They are deaf because they do not hear or do not want to understand what he says. And they are also mute because they cannot speak the words of life that Jesus gives them.

The very same can happen to each one of us. Let us pray today to be able to see clearly, to understand what God says to us and to be able to share it with others.

This section of Matthew concludes with a general description or summary of what Jesus was doing. He was going through all the towns and villages of Galilee; he was teaching in synagogues; he was proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom; and he was healing all kinds of diseases and sickness.

But behind all that he does, is his deep compassion for the needs of the people. He sees them harassed and dejected, wandering and aimless, like sheep without a guiding shepherd—a familiar image in the Old Testament (see Ezekiel 34). Then, looking at his disciples, he says:

The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few…

Jesus cannot do it all on his own. In fact, he will hardly step outside the boundaries of Palestine. He needs many helpers.

Today, the situation has not changed. The harvest is as big as ever; people are as lost and rudderless as they have ever been in spite of the great strides in knowledge we have made. Where are the labourers? They are not just the bishops, the priests or the religious brothers and sisters. That is a very narrow concept of labourers.

Every single baptised person is called, in some way, to be a harvester, to help people find and experience the truth and love that God gives in Jesus. Every single person, in that sense (and it is a very real sense) has a vocation, a call to serve and to build the Kingdom. What and where and with whom is my vocation?

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Commentary on 2 John 4-9

The three Letters of John all seem to have been written about the same time, by the same person and probably from Ephesus. The dates suggested vary from 85-100 AD. Today we have a reading of just six verses from the Second Letter, which is actually the shortest ‘book’ in the whole of the New Testament, not even taking up one page in most Bibles.

In the book’s first verse, the author calls himself “the Elder”, which indicates a level of authority over the community to which he is writing. Whether he is to be identified with John the Apostle is not certain, but also not very likely.

The Second Letter was written to a church under the jurisdiction of “the Elder”, which referred to in the reading as “the elect Lady”—’elect’ meaning chosen. This was in reply to people there who were publicly denying the truth of the Incarnation—that Jesus was truly God and Man.

Today’s reading is in two parts. In the first part, the author congratulates the church (now referred to as “dear lady”) for following the true teaching:

…walking in the truth, just as we have been commanded by the Father.

He is writing to them, not with a new commandment, but with one they have had since the beginning, that is, since the time of their conversion—namely, that they should love one another. Loving God and loving one’s neighbour was not a new commandment.

In the Gospel they had been taught, they were given love of God and love of neighbor as the most important of Jewish laws (as quoted in Deut 6:5 and Lev 19:18). But at the Last Supper, Jesus gave a “new commandment” which was:

…as I have loved you, you also should love one another.
(John 13:34)

Jesus will spell that out by saying:

No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. (John 15:13)

Jesus called his disciples his “friends” and he gave his life for them. That is now to be the paradigm for our relationship with those around us.

In the Letter today, this commandment is simply being reemphasised. To love, says the Elder, is to live according to Jesus’ commandments, which can all be summed up in the one commandment:

And this is love…this is the commandment just as you have heard it from the beginning—you must walk in it.

Love, however, should not blind them to the truth. And that brings us to the second part of the reading. The author warns his church about those who are denying:

…that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh…

In other words, they are denying the true humanity of Jesus. The Gnostics taught that the Son of God did not become a human being, but that he temporarily came down upon the man Jesus between his baptism and his crucifixion.

They held this belief under the conviction that all material things were evil, and the good person should withdraw as far as possible from the material world. In this thinking, God could not have taken on a material body. He only had the temporary appearance of being linked to a human.

The teachers of this doctrine are called here the “Antichrist” because they deny the very essence of what we believe Jesus Christ to be. The Christians are warned that to follow this teaching could jeopardise their faith and their ultimate salvation.

The author assumed his readers knew that a great enemy of God and his people was expected to appear before Christ’s final return. That person is called “antichrist”, “the deceiver”, and in Revelation (13:1-10), “the beast”. But prior to him, there will be many other antichrists.

In the Letters of John, the antichrists have the following characteristics:

• they deny the incarnation and that Jesus is the divine Christ;
• they deny the Father;
• they do not have the Father;
• they are liars and deceivers;
• they are many;
• in John’s day, they left the church because they had nothing in common with believers.

The ‘antichrists’ referred to in John’s letter were the early Gnostics. The Elder warns that those who do not keep to the Church’s teaching about Christ, but go beyond it as the Gnostics claimed to do, cannot be with God. They went beyond the apostolic teaching by indulging in pure speculation and presenting that as the teaching and belief of the Church.

However, says the Elder, only those who remain faithful to the original teaching are in union with both the Father and the Son. Because, as Jesus had said:

Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. (John 14:9)

The passage highlights two contrasting attitudes we need to have as Christians. On the one hand, our lives are to be governed entirely by the law of love—loving each other to the same degree that Christ has loved and continues to love us. It must be the touchstone of all our living.

But loving does not mean turning a blind eye to what is against the true or the good. It does not mean absolute tolerance for any idea or any action. We do not love people by turning a blind eye to the harm they may do to themselves or others, by ideas they hold, or the behaviour they indulge in.

In another part of this letter, the Christians are told to avoid giving to false teachers the hospitality traditionally extended to travelling teachers. The Gospel speaks of expelling people from the community when their behaviour is quite out of keeping with the standards that the Church wishes to maintain to be a credible witness to the Gospel.

Yet, love remains the criterion. Expulsion lasts only as long as there has been no repentance or reconciliation. The Church, like its Master, wishes that people be saved and not condemned.

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Commentary on Luke 17:7-10

Today we have another warning from Luke (and one which is only found in his Gospel) about complacency. As we read this parable we must be careful—as with many of the others—not to confuse matters by dragging in issues which are anachronistic. Jesus asks:

Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, ‘Come here at once and take your place at the table’.

Would we invite him to sit down, have his supper and take a good rest?

Would you not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me; put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink’?

Would we even express gratitude to a servant who was only doing what was expected of him?

Here, let us temporarily put aside our current understanding of workers’ rights, democracy and the evils and long-lasting repercussions of slavery of every kind. No one in Jesus’ time, either an employer or a slave, would have thought for a moment of questioning what he is saying. At the same time, we might remember Jesus saying that watchful servants will be welcomed by their master who will make them sit down and will wait personally on them (see Luke 12:37), and that Jesus washed his disciples’ feet as an example of service.

What we are dealing with here is our relationship with God. The point Jesus is making is that God need never be grateful to us for anything we do for him. No matter how much we do for him, we can never put him in our debt. Everything we give to God (or to God through others) is simply giving back to him a small portion of what he has already given us. It is well said in Preface IV for Weekday Masses:

You have no need of our praise, yet our desire to thank you is itself your gift. Our prayer of thanksgiving adds nothing to your greatness, but makes us grow in your grace.

God can never be in our debt. He can never be under any obligation to us. Perhaps that is what some of the Pharisees thought. They believed that, because they kept the Law perfectly, God owed them salvation. We see that in the scene of the Pharisee and the tax collector praying in the Temple, where the Pharisee’s prayer gives the impression that God should be deeply grateful to have, among so many negligent people, such a good person as himself.

We can do the same thing ourselves when, for instance, we think that by saying certain prayers or performing certain acts (like novenas, indulgences and pilgrimages), God should jump to attention and do what we are telling him to do or give us what we are asking for.

All our living out of the gospel is not a compliment paid to God. On the contrary, we can never be grateful enough to him for showing us the way to truth, love, freedom and happiness which Jesus taught us, and for giving us the grace to walk in his Way. With God, all our giving is only an imperfect and partial giving back.

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Commentary on Hebrews 6:10-20

The source of all our security is in the oath God has made to all humankind and whose pledge is in Jesus our High Priest, who has gone before us and on our behalf. Today’s reading begins with words of encouragement to the Hebrews, who are having problems in remaining faithful to their Christian commitment. On the one hand, they are to realise that God is not unmindful of all the good things they have done, and the love they have shown in their service of their fellow Christians. This may include material help given to another church, perhaps the church in Jerusalem which was often in need.

At the same time, he urges them to maintain their former earnestness:

…so that you may not become sluggish but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

He wants them to follow in the footsteps of those who have maintained their fidelity and shown patience in times of difficulty. Paul, in his letters, often encourages people to be “imitators”, to model themselves on outstanding Christians. Paul even suggests that they be imitators of himself.

The author then goes on to use the example of Abraham as one who believed in God’s promise to him and was not disappointed. God had sworn in his own name (for there was no other by whom he could swear an oath) that Abraham would be blessed and that his descendants would be great in number. They would be:

…as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. (Gen 22:17)

This promise seemed impossible of fulfilment when Abraham was asked to sacrifice his only legitimate son, Isaac. Only when, in a great act of trust in God, he proceeded to prepare his son for sacrifice, did God stay his hand. Abraham’s total submission in faith to God had been convincingly demonstrated. Later in the Letter, there is a much longer discussion of faith.

When human beings swear by an oath, they do so by someone greater than themselves and, in normal circumstances, an oath solemnly made is taken as a final guarantee. When God wanted to show that his promise to the heirs of Abraham was genuine, he too guaranteed it with an oath.

So the Hebrew Christians are protected by these two unassailable guarantees—God’s promise and his confirming oath. With such a backing, their hope in their future with God is made sure and firm. And it is made more sure by the backing of our High Priest, a backing which reaches right to God’s presence. This is all expressed in a Temple image:

We have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters the inner shrine behind the curtain, where Jesus, a forerunner on our behalf, has entered, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

Actually, the anchor as a symbol of hope is not normally found in Scripture, but was common in the culture of Greece and Rome as a symbol of stability. It became a symbol of hope in Christian iconography of the 2nd century AD.

The image is of the Jerusalem Temple, where the high priest once a year, on the solemn Day of Atonement, penetrated beyond the veil or curtain of the Holy of Holies where God was believed to be present, and offered sacrifice on behalf of the people. Jesus, our High Priest and “forerunner on our behalf”, penetrates the veil of Heaven, where God dwells in inaccessible glory. There he intercedes on our behalf. The imagery here anticipates a much longer discussion of the tabernacle later in the Letter.

In our time, Jesus is still our High Priest. In every Eucharist, we celebrate and remember with thanksgiving the supreme offering he made of himself on our behalf. And we, too, are full of faith and hope that the promises made in the Gospel will become a reality in our own lives—provided we open ourselves fully to them.

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Commentary on Hebrews 7:25—8:6

Today’s reading shows again the contrast between the high priests of the Law and Christ our High Priest. The Hebrew Christians (to whom the Letter is addressed) are being reminded, once again, that the Jesus Christ they are threatening to abandon in favour of the old Temple-based worship is on a far superior level.

In the two verses immediately preceding today’s reading, the author reminds his readers that the former priests were many in number because they died off and had to be replaced. Christ, however, holds his priesthood permanently because he endures forever. Hence (and it is here that our reading begins) he is able for all time to be a source of salvation for us because his intercession on our behalf is never-ending.

And it is totally:

…fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, blameless, undefiled, separated from sinners [in their sinfulness], and exalted above the heavens.

In this, Christ is totally different from the Levitical priests. Perhaps it also indicates Jesus’ superiority over Melchizedek. Christ does not need to offer sacrifices every day for the sins of the people and for his own sins. Parenthetically, daily sacrifice is nowhere mentioned in the Mosaic Law. The high priest was only expected to offer sacrifice on the Day of Atonement “because of their transgressions, all their sins” (see Leviticus chap 16).

Jesus made one sacrifice for the whole world and for all time, a sacrifice that does not need to be repeated. The Levitical priests offered animals in sacrifice, but our High Priest makes the unique offering of his totally sin-less self, a single offering that was once for all time.

The Jewish Law appointed:

…as high priests humans [men], who are subject to weakness, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.

The fulfilment of God’s oath regarding the priesthood of Melchizedek (“You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek”, Ps 110:4) makes the Son of God the perfect priest forever.

As we enter chapter 8, the superiority of Christ as High Priest is further emphasised. According to the New Jerusalem Bible:

“The argument so far has been to prove that what Christ is, i.e., an eternal and perfect priest, is superior to what the Levitical priests are, since they are mortals and sinners. Now the argument goes on to show that what Christ does is equally superior to what the Levitical priests do: Christ’s sanctuary is better because it is in heaven, while the one on earth is only a copy of it, and the covenant brought by the mediation of Christ is a better covenant.”

Our High Priest is not in a temple made by human hands. Rather, he:

…is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister in the sanctuary and the true tent that the Lord, and not any mortal, has set up.

Before the building of the Temple by Solomon, the Ark of the Covenant, representing the presence of Yahweh among his people, was housed in a special tent or tabernacle. God dwells in an altogether superior “Holy of Holies”, and it is there that Christ has access to his Father on an equal and permanent level.

“True” here means “real” in contradistinction to a mere “sketch and shadow”, as the earthly sanctuary is described. The idea that the earthly sanctuary is a shadowy reflection of a heavenly model may be derived from the Platonic concept of a real world of which our observable world is merely a shadow (Plato’s famous cave).

Further, the role of every priest is to offer gifts and sacrifices, and our Priest also has something to offer. But if he were on earth, he would not be a priest in the ordinary human sense, because the priests only made offerings in accordance with the Law, that is, for the sins of the people and their own sins. Christ’s offering, on the other hand, is made purely on our behalf. He does not need to make sacrifice for himself. On the contrary, he is the Perfect Offering, pleasing to the Father.

In addition, the priests make their offering in a sanctuary that is only a pale shadow of the heavenly sanctuary where God dwells. When Moses was about to erect the tent or tabernacle (in which the Ark of the Covenant was placed), he was told by Yahweh to make it exactly according to the instructions he was given on Mount Sinai. As such, it had all the limitations of human workmanship. The use of the present tense here leads some to believe that the Temple was still standing and functioning, and that these words must have been written prior to 70 AD when Jerusalem was sacked and destroyed by the emperor Titus (an event commemorated in the Arch of Titus still to be seen in the Roman Forum).

But Christ as Priest has been given a much higher form of ministry and is the mediator between God and us of a new and better covenant—a covenant which is being carried out according to better promises. All in all, then, how can the Hebrew Christians be thinking of going back to the old dispensation when the new one with Jesus Christ is on a totally different level and can do so much more for them?

It is for us to remember that we, too, are sharers in this new dispensation. Let us thank Christ for the gift of the Church, for his Living Word and for the many ways in which our lives are nourished by our adherence to our High Priest.

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Commentary on Hebrews 8:6-13

Jesus, with a far higher ministry, is the mediator of a new and better covenant between God and his people.  A large part of today’s reading is taken up with a passage from the prophet Jeremiah, as confirmation of the writer’s argument about the superiority of the new covenant made through Jesus Christ.

The reading opens by stating that Jesus has obtained a better ministry than that of the Levitical priesthood and is the mediator of a better covenant, that is, the covenant that was sealed between God and us by the sacrificial death of Jesus.

The Christ is the only perfect mediator because he is truly human and truly divine.  He is the one and only true intermediary between God and the human race.  He unites and reconciles them.  Through him comes God’s love and complete revelation.  And, in heaven, he continues to intercede for those who remain faithful to him.

The author further adds that, if the first covenant had been without fault or defect, it would not need to have been replaced.  But God did find fault with it, and that is confirmed by the long quotation from the prophet Jeremiah which immediately follows (from Jer 31:31-34).  The author follows the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament. Some discrepancies with the official text may be because the author was working from a different version or because he deliberately altered the text himself.

The NIV Study Bible summarizes how the pre-eminence of the new covenant lies in its superior benefits:

1. God’s laws will become inner principles which will enable his people to delight in doing his will;
2. God and his people will have an intimate fellowship;
3. Sinful ignorance of God will be removed forever;
4. Forgiveness of sin will be an everlasting reality.

The passage from Jeremiah begins with the prophet’s quoting Yahweh’s words in which the Lord says that he is going to establish a new covenant with the houses of Israel (the Northern Kingdom) and Judah (the Southern Kingdom).  This new covenant will be different from the one that was made through Moses on Mount Sinai:

…when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt.

There is need now for a new covenant because the people, in not observing the first covenant, became distanced from the Lord.  A reading of the books of Samuel and Kings affords abundant evidence of the people’s infidelity to Yahweh and the Law.

This new covenant will be a covenant in the heart and not just in outward behaviour, such as the observance of external rules and rituals:

I will put my laws in their minds
and write them on their hearts…

And then comes the covenant promise:

…I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.

It is an agreement to be kept by both sides.

From then on, there will be no need for people to teach each other, saying “Know the Lord.”  This is because, by their observance of the covenant and the mutual relationship it implies, they will already know their Lord in the way that really matters—finding and serving him in every area of their lives.

Furthermore, God will show compassion for their past sins and even forget them entirely.  This idea is central to the new covenant.  As we know from Jesus in the Gospel, God only sees us as we are at the present moment.  Where our past is concerned, he has a very bad memory!

Then the Hebrews’ author resumes his message.  In speaking of a “new covenant”, it is clear that the old one is now obsolete:

…what is obsolete and growing old will soon disappear.

Again, the argument is clear: what are the ‘Hebrews’ thinking of by wanting to go back to a way of life that has lost its validity for them?

We, too, need to remain faithful and vigilant in our commitment to Jesus as our link with God our loving Father. For us, too, it is what goes on in our heart that matters more than what we just do on the outside.