Engraved on the Heart: The New Covenant of Christ
August 8, 2024 - Thursday, Memorial of Saint Dominic, Priest
Jer 31:31-34
Today, Jeremiah introduces us to the theme of covenant, a central concept in the relationship between God and His people. In the Old Testament, God established a covenant with Noah, representing all of humanity (Gen. 9:9-11), with Abraham, the father of all believers (Rom. 4:16), and through Moses with the people of Israel (Ex. 24:8). Unfortunately, while God was always faithful to these covenants, the people were not.
Jeremiah today recalls the covenant made at Sinai. When Moses had read the Book of the Covenant to the people, the nation pledged to keep its commandments: "All that the Lord has said, we will do and obey" (Ex. 24:7). Yet, instead of keeping it, they broke it (Jer. 31:32).
Abraham Heschel said that "prophecy can inform, but it cannot transform." The same can be said about the law. It can give us information about what we should do, but it is unable to make us do it. Saint Paul went even further, stating that "through the law comes knowledge of sin" (Rom. 3:20), but it is unable to prevent us from sinning or justify us before God (see Rom. 3:19-20; 7:7-25). This tragedy of humanity is expressed in the cry of the Psalmist: "Create a pure heart in me, O God" (Psalm 51:12). The new covenant is God's answer to that prayer.
The phrase "new covenant" appears in the Gospels and Paul's letters in the passages narrating the institution of the Eucharist, referring to Jesus' coming sacrifice on the cross: "This cup is the new covenant in my blood" (1 Cor. 11:25; see also Matt. 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20). The author of the letter to the Hebrews quotes the entire passage of Jeremiah promising a new covenant (see Heb. 8:8-12) and declares Jesus Christ, who shed his blood for us, to be "the mediator of" that "new covenant" (see Heb. 9:14-15; see also CCC, 762).
The Catechism of the Catholic Church refers to today's passage from Jeremiah seven times. For the first time, the new covenant is presented as an object of longing (see CCC, 64). Jeremiah's phrase about the coming days is interpreted as the last days that have begun with the incarnation of Christ. The fulfillment of the promise about God's law being written on the hearts of the faithful is realized on the Day of Pentecost (see CCC, 715). But, before Pentecost, the Church teaches that it was in Jesus Christ that the law engraved on tables of stone for the first time appears engraved "upon the heart" (see CCC, 580).
The Church also reinterprets God's law as being written on the hearts of Christ's believers. It is not the Decalogue but the Law of the Gospel expressed in the Sermon on the Mount. This new law, written into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, becomes "the interior law of charity" (see CCC, 1965). In this way, we are being shaped into the image and likeness of God's beloved Son, Jesus Christ.