5 Lent, Year B, March 17
Jer. 31:31-34
Ps. 51:1-13 or Ps. 119:9-16
Heb. 5:5-10 • John 12:20-33
The Lord speaks through the prophet Jeremiah, promising a new covenant, one that is written on the heart. “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 one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall know me, from the least to the greatest, says the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquities, and remember their sin no more” (Jer. 31:33-34). This new covenant is not only written on the human heart but breaks the heart as well. Indeed, as the Psalmist says, “The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Ps. 51:18).
This internal covenant, fulfilled in Christ, was sealed by a great offering.
“In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him” (Heb. 5:7-9).
The cries and tears of Jesus are all the sufferings of the world. Jesus feels and knows all our temptations: the crafts and assaults of the devil, blindness of heart, pride, vainglory, hypocrisy, envy, hatred, malice, want of charity, deceits of the world, the flesh, and the devil, oppression, conspiracy, and rebellion (The Great Litany). A world of evil converges against Jesus, and he willingly bears the attack, exhausting, by his one oblation, all the powers of evil, though it appears at first sight that evil has triumphed.
The suffering of Jesus breaks open the human heart because it shows, paradoxically, that God is present in godless places. God goes to the very limit of evil and death to gather up every fragment of every broken human life. This is not done to sanction or lionize suffering as an end in itself but to imbue suffering with meaning and to show the final victory of God in the resurrection of Jesus.
Jesus speaks of a great and final victory. “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:31-31). The Christian life is the unfolding of this great mystery, the exposure and defeat of “the ruler of this world.” In Christ, we are set free as the children of God, filled with new life and new joy.
We will take all this to heart when something deep within us breaks. When we feel our cries and tears united to those of Jesus, when we see him bleeding for the world, inexhaustible in mercy, the foundation of all sacrificial love — then, we discover the wisdom and power of God displayed on the cross and etched into our hearts. From the cross, a miraculous change occurs, the promise that God is with us and is victorious. Thus, we glory in the cross of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation.
Look It Up: Psalm 119:11
Think About It: “I treasure your promise in my heart.” The promise is cruciform.