Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator
Today's reading from the Prophet Jeremiah tells us that God will write the new covenant on our hearts. I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people. (Jeremiah 31:33bc) These sentiments are echoed by a contemporary of Jeremiah's, the Prophet Ezekiel. I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. (Ezekiel 36:26) You will be my people, and I will be your God. (Ezekiel 26:28b)
These statements are in stark difference to the way the covenant was expressed in the Torah: Now, if you obey me completely and keep my covenant, you will be my treasured possession among all peoples, though all the earth is mine. (Exodus 19:5) When Ezekiel references the hearts of stone, he is referring directly to the Sinai covenant, written on tablets of stone. By saying that the new covenant is to be written on our hearts, Jeremiah and Ezekiel are preparing us for Jesus's covenant of love: By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:35)
The conditional statement that Moses reports to the people of Israel is what we might say to a child, not yet mature enough to understand. "If you take out the garbage and do your other chores. . ." In its infancy, God's people, did not understand unconditional love. By the time of the Exile, Jeremiah and Ezekiel have plumbed the depths of God's love and remove the conditional "if" from the statement. We are God's and God is ours.
Unfortunately, we still hang on to such conditions. When disasters such as Hurricane Katrina or the Christmas Day tsunami happen, many opined that God was punishing those people because they were so sinful. Such comments reveal only their capriciousness; God could never be so petty, so vindictive. Natural disasters are what they are; i.e. the natural events of an imperfect world. A people who are identified by their love for one another would forget about affixing motives to God and would simply reach out to those affected in love and generosity.