Reflection Friday Week 2 (Year C) Fr. Michael U. Udoekpo
Readings: Heb 8:6-13 Ps 85; 8, 10-14; Mark
3:13-19
The New Covenant of Love,
Those of us who play soccer, 11 players are required for
each side. Both sides need umpires in the centre and on the side lines, as
mediators for the game to be played effectively and smoothly, without
unnecessary arguments. Most sports, Base ball, Lawn Tennis, Basket ball name
them, requires umpires or mediators too. Even though, there are usually still
some arguments, even with their presents, the benefits of their roles cannot be
overemphasized.
In our spiritual journeys, “spiritual sports” we have
always need umpires, check and balances in forms of the covenant God had
established with us through our ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David
and the prophets, renewed in Christ Jesus.
The old covenant required strict laws and obedience to
those laws. But the new covenant we al read in Jeremiah 31:31-34, which the
author to the letter to the Hebrews lovingly and insightfully quotes at length,
is based on love. It is written in our hearts. People obey them not because
they are forced, but out of love, freewill and volition. Our respond to God is
based on love. It is a covenant of a new kind since the first was not
sufficient. In fact it has become obsolete.
The new covenant has a universal effect, men, women and
children will know God, the rich an the poor. It has the power of washing away
our sins “for I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sins no
more.” The new covenant is broader in
scope, embracing both 12 tribes of Israel 10 from the North and 2 from
the South. It is a covenant of love and unity mediated by Christ.
No wonder Marks Gospel 3:13-19, Jesus the mediator of the
new covenant summoned those he loved, those he wanted. Like in the case of the
12 tribes of Israel,
Jesus significantly summoned not one, not half, not ten, not two, but the whole
Twelve, whom he also named apostles.
The new covenant has the power to unit. It has the power to
reconcile us with God and with one another. It is a covenant of love. May we see ourselves among the twelve! And may
our dealings and interaction with one another, our studies and works, be daily
based on Christ’s love- the mediator of the new covenant.
