Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent

Today's Mass Readings

The Torah was the foundation stone of the faith of ancient Israel. God made a covenant with his chosen people. They were to be a people particularly his own. He would bring them into a land of promise, flowing with milk and honey, and protect them on every side. For their part of the contract, the Israelites were to obey the Lord’s laws and statutes and to serve no god other than Him. God’s Torah was highly revered. “He has proclaimed his word to Jacob, his statutes and his ordinances to Israel. He has not done thus for any other nation” (Ps 147:19-20). We know the checkered history of God’s people throughout the Old Testament. Time and again, His chosen ones turned away to serve other gods and failed to fulfill the Lord’s commands. In the course of time, they abandoned the Torah and were exiled to a foreign land to serve as slaves to the Babylonian nation. But God promised his people a new covenant: “See, days are coming—oracle of the Lord—when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah” (Jer 31:31).

Jesus, descendant of the line of David, appears in time to bring about the fulfillment of this New Covenant and to restore the original intent of the Law. “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 (Mt 5:17-18). Jesus, the new lawgiver, the new Moses, does not replace the Torah, but adds an important statute to bring it to fulfillment: “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (Jn 15:12). Jesus clarifies his meaning even further at the Last Supper: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will be shed for you” (Lk 22:20). This new covenant is a law of love, demonstrated by Christ’s sacrificial death for us upon the Cross.

As we move through these Lenten days, we are challenged to examine our observance of the law, not just external regulations, but the law of the heart, the law of love for our brothers and sisters. In what area of our lives do we need the renewal of our covenant commitment? How can we better live Jesus’ law of love?

Reflection by Br. Michael Marcotte, OSB