Thursday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A view from the Franciscan Retreat House
in Malibu, California

The days are coming, says the Lord,
when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel 
and the house of Judah.
It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers…

Jeremiah saw the destruction of the Jerusalem and the dispersal of his fellow citizens throughout the world. To this day Jews live in every nation, practicing their faith and ceremonially looking forward to that day when they return to Jerusalem.

In the last century that ceremony led many Jews back to Palestine and to reclaim Jerusalem as their city. But most Jews remain where they are, living out their lives where they find themselves, and contributing as loyal citizens of all nations. Their expectation of a new Jerusalem may be as vague as the Christian doctrine of heaven, but they hope as we hope in the fulfillment of God’s promises.

The new covenant that Jeremiah predicted would be something the world had never seen, a religion without a homeland. It would be based in the synagogue and home, rather than in a temple. Its leadership would be teachers rather than priests. Its ceremonies are readings and reflections on the Torah, rather than sacrifices of grain, fruit, vegetables or livestock. Membership would be determined by birth rather than locality. In fact the Jews of Jesus’ time avoided the Samaritans, although they were born in Jewish territory and worshipped the Jewish God, because they were not of Jewish stock.

The Christian tradition developed from that new kind of religion. We see the fulfillment of Jeremiah’s promise in the Holy Spirit which is given to the baptized. Rather than the “Law” of Torah and tradition, we listen for the voice of God in our hearts, guiding us through the infinite variety of perplexing situations in which we find ourselves.

Sent like the Jews to every nation, we have become a blessing to the earth. The new covenant given to Jews, Christians and Muslims far exceeds even Jeremiah’s extravagant imagination.