Behold, days are coming – declares the Lord – when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel (and with the house of Judah); not like the covenant I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of Egypt…
JEREMIAH 31:31-34
Behold, days are coming – declares the Lord – when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel (and with the house of Judah); not like the covenant I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of Egypt; for they broke my covenant, and I had to show myself their master – declares the Lord. But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days – declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest – declares the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.
Jeremiah is the prophet who seems closest to us. He lived six hundred years before Jesus Christ. These were the most difficult years for Israel. Decay, general upheaval of the world due to the fall of Nineveh to the Chaldeans, siege and destruction of Jerusalem, exile of the people. Jeremiah spent these years teaching, preaching, predicting disaster… and was viewed with disfavor by all, rejected, accused of undermining the people’s morale, imprisoned. He remained in Jerusalem after the exile and ended his days in exile in Egypt.
But all these sufferings immensely purified his faith. He is the one who best formulated the doctrine of “The New Covenant,” “The Religion of the Heart.” This has constituted him as the spiritual father of the purest Judaism, of what has been called “the remnant of Israel.”
The text of today is a good example of this purified religion, of this worship of God that resides in the heart of man. It is the announcement of the New People, formed by Sons, who know God and do not live in sin-justice, but in forgiveness, in the knowledge of the Father.
HEBREWS 5:7-9
In the days of his earthly life, Jesus offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered; and once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.
This is one of the deepest and richest documents of the New Testament. Sometimes attributed to Paul, today it seems more probable, due to its style and theology, that it is not from him, although it is from his environment. It brilliantly uses the entire Old Testament, applying its concepts and images, as the fullness, fulfillment, and surpassing of all that came before.
The fragment we read is inscribed in a larger one that gives it meaning. It begins like this:
“Therefore, since we have such a great high priest who has passed through the heavens – Jesus, the Son of God – let us hold fast to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need…”
The text thus presents Jesus starting from the images, customs, etc., of the Old Testament. Here he is compared with the High Priest of the Temple of Jerusalem, and it is done precisely to emphasize the difference. He is a High Priest who does not “offer for the sins of others” but who bears our sins upon himself.
It is therefore a question of Christ the man, chosen as Priest. It is a profound theology of the Incarnation. This man chosen as Priest, declared Son, is the work of Salvation of God. He is accepted by God because he accepts His will. God has not freed him from pain and death: he has been subjected to all that. God has heard him not by freeing him from suffering the consequences of evil and sin, but by making him triumph over all that, for Himself and for all.
As we see, it is a profound and therefore difficult theology, but we know well this line of revelation: Jesus, God with us. God sharing man’s evil, because He loves us, and triumphing over it.
José Enrique Galarreta, S.J.