THE WORD BECAME FLESH

Thursday of 18^th Week in Ordinary time, 2002

Jer. 31:31-34

Ps 51

Matt 16:13-23

St John Vianney

A new covenant

Dear friends in Christ, today we celebrate the memorial of St Jean-Baptist Vianney (Cure d’ Ars). He was not a very promising student academically, being a son of a peasant farmer, but was eventually ordained because of his devout life. When he became the Parish priest of Ars-en-Dombes, an isolated village away from Lyon he did his very best and became a noted preacher and confessor. His fame grew widely and many sought him at the confessional where he was spending about eighteen hours a day hearing confessions. Ars became a pilgrimage center from the number of people coming. He is the Patron Saint of Parish Priests and all Priests. 

Our first reading today (Jeremiah 31:31-34) brings to a close the selections from the works of this prophet for our readings. It should be also a message of hope. A message of God's promise of a new covenant, "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers..." In this passage, it is the Lord who again takes the initiative, if the old covenant brokered with Abraham has been broken repeatedly, God finds a new way, a way of redemption. It will no longer just be a communal effort at keeping the new covenant, it consists more of individual responsibility. "This is the covenant which 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 upon their hearts, and I will be their God and they shall be my people." In this new covenant, I need to align my will with that of God. While the Old Covenant was based on the law given on Sinai, the new covenant is based on love sealed with the blood of God's only begotten Son, Jesus, on Calvary.

Today's gospel (Matthew 16:13-23) presents a question posed by Jesus to his disciples after they had been with him for the whole of his ministry. "Who do you say I am?" It was Peter who answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." This question touches at the very heart of our faith. The Christian Faith is not the acceptance of some set of laws and rules, it is the follower-ship of a person, the person of Jesus. Anyone who accepts him as the Son of the living God must be willing to live like him and be low in his footsteps. No wonder then just shortly after this he also rebuked Peter for saying, "God forbid Lord, this must not happen to you," when he revealed he was going to Jerusalem to suffer and to die. Like Peter, anyone who refuses the cross is rebuked, "Get behind me satan! You are a hindrance to me; for you are not on the side of God, but of men." To follow Jesus is to accept the cross and the sufferings we have to endure every day. That is the demand of the new covenant which requires individual acceptance of Jesus and his mission.

Let us pray: Lord, show us your way, that we may follow your path. Give us joy and happiness as we seek to follow you. Amen

+Remain blessed