Daily Liturgy
Wednesday 09 June
Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
IN THE NEW COVENANT
Introduction
Paul, defending his ministry against Jewish converts who insist on their prerogatives, states that the new covenant is superior to the old one as the life-giving Spirit is superior to the death-bringing law.
Jesus says something similar in words that at first sight seem to say the opposite: he has come not to abolish the law but to fulfill it, that is, to give it deeper dimensions. What matters for us especially is that we must be aware that we live under the new law of love and that we are guided by the liberating Holy Spirit from servitude to the law.
Opening Prayer
Lord our God,
you have taken the initiative of loving us
and bringing us your freedom
through your Son Jesus Christ.
Enrich us with the Spirit of Jesus,
pour him out generously, without measure,
that we may no longer hide
behind traditions and the letter of the law,
to extinguish the Spirit of freedom.
Let him enlarge our hearts
and stimulate our fantasy
to discover love’s numerous ways
to fulfill the law to perfection.
We ask you this through Christ our Lord.
Reading 1: 2 Cor 3:4-11
Brothers and sisters:
Such confidence we have through Christ toward God.
Not that of ourselves we are qualified to take credit
for anything as coming from us;
rather, our qualification comes from God,
who has indeed qualified us as ministers of a new covenant,
not of letter but of spirit;
for the letter brings death, but the Spirit gives life.
Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, was so glorious
that the children of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses
because of its glory that was going to fade,
how much more will the ministry of the Spirit be glorious?
For if the ministry of condemnation was glorious,
the ministry of righteousness will abound much more in glory.
Indeed, what was endowed with glory
has come to have no glory in this respect
because of the glory that surpasses it.
For if what was going to fade was glorious,
how much more will what endures be glorious.
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 99:5, 6, 7, 8, 9
R.(see 9c) Holy is the Lord our God.
Extol the LORD, our God,
and worship at his footstool;
holy is he!
R. Holy is the Lord our God.
Moses and Aaron were among his priests,
and Samuel, among those who called upon his name;
they called upon the LORD, and he answered them.
R. Holy is the Lord our God.
From the pillar of cloud he spoke to them;
they heard his decrees and the law he gave them.
R. Holy is the Lord our God.
O LORD, our God, you answered them;
a forgiving God you were to them,
though requiting their misdeeds.
R. Holy is the Lord our God.
Extol the LORD, our God,
and worship at his holy mountain;
for holy is the LORD, our God.
R. Holy is the Lord our God.
Alleluia: Ps 25:4b, 5a
Alleluia, alleluia.
Teach me your paths, my God,
and guide me in your truth.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel: Mt 5:17-19
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.
Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away,
not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter
will pass from the law,
until all things have taken place.
Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments
and teaches others to do so
will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven.
But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments
will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.”
Intercessions
– For the Church dear to us, that the Lord may help it to keep renewing itself, so that it may stay on the road of the Gospel and that people can live the Gospel as good news, we pray:
– For those who leave their nets to follow Jesus the Lord, that they may so live the Gospel as to make it visible and tangible, we pray:
– For all of us in our communities, that the Lord may help us to take the Gospel seriously and to live it in close union with the Lord, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
Lord our God,
in these gifts of bread and wine
we place our goodwill
to follow your Son
wherever he calls us.
Let our encounter here
with your Son and with each other
mark a new beginning for us
of unity and loyal love,
that the seed of your kingdom
may grow among us
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Prayer after Communion
Lord our God,
we know what you can do
with weak, fallible people.
In the strength of your Son,
help us to do what surpasses our forces:
to be your people
and to be to the world
the sign that you love everyone
and that friendship and justice
are no empty words for you and for us.
We ask you this through Christ our Lord.
Blessing
The time is now. Repent and believe the good news. Come and follow me. Be my disciples. Jesus spoke these words long ago. He addresses them here and now to us. May you heed these words, with the blessing of almighty God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Commentary
It would seem that the Christian community for which Matthew writes is pro-law and religiously conservative. It is certainly true that Jesus held the main lines of the Jewish law in respect, but to argue that he would uphold the law in all its features even to the end of the age exceeds the evidence. That he was God’s agent of fulfillment is certainly the case. But he was to be the author of a different type of observance, which went beyond simply observing the letter of the law.
Paul, as we know, takes a very different tack. For him the law had seen its day and was passing away. Its glory was a fading one. Giving his own interpretation of the brilliant face of Moses when he communed with God, Paul believed that Moses’ face was covered to conceal a glory that was passing away. For this reason he calls the ministry of Moses a ministry of death. The new ministry of the Spirit, however, is a glorious one that will not pass away. Paul does not see the ministry of the law as having permanent value. It is destined to pass away.
It is clear that the new covenant of Jesus, the covenant of the heart not written in stone, far surpasses that which preceded it. It is the covenant of which Jeremiah spoke, a covenant that comes from within. A covenant not written in stone but on the flesh of the heart.
We belong to the Judeo-Christian tradition. Christianity can never be understood if it is detached from its Jewish roots. On the other hand we are not simply a law-observing people. We are made holy not by anything we do but because we have been graced and favored. Christian fulfillment lies in the spirit not the letter. It is the response of a grateful heart.
Points to Ponder
The role of the law in Christian life
Matthew and the law’s lasting value
The new covenant of the heart.