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Our Sunday Reflection - March 17, 2024
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I will make a new covenant and remember their sin no more.
Jeremiah 31:31-34
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Introduction to the Liturgy of the Day
As we draw close to Holy Week, we hear Jesus talk about his approaching death. Yet his message to his disciples is not so much about his death as it is about eternal life. As Christians, we know that as difficult as death is, our true focus, our true hope is in eternal life, trusting that our Lord is our source of eternal salvation. During this final week before Holy Week, let us keep in mind that just as our Lenten journey will not end with Good Friday, but with Easter, so too does our own life’s journey end not in death but in new life.Introduction to the Liturgy of the Word
Jeremiah looked forward to the day when God’s covenant with humanity would be internalized in us, when it would be imprinted on our hearts. To prepare our hearts for keeping the covenant, we pray that God will create clean hearts in us. Especially during Lent, our longing for reconciliation and forgiveness can help to prepare our hearts. In the Gospel, Jesus speaks from the heart, questioning why he would ask God to save him from suffering and death when that was the purpose in the first place. May we let God’s word penetrate our hearts as well.Reflections
- Jeremiah makes a bold statement when he says that the centuries-old covenant that God made with Abraham would be superseded by a new covenant. The main difference that he foresaw between the old and the new is that the new covenant would be internal. We will not have to look up the answer or feel disconnected from God’s will. With the law written upon our hearts, it becomes part of us.
- As we approach Holy Week and our Lord’s Passion, we hear Jesus talk about death and eternal life. He realized that he himself was approaching that time, but he also wanted those he loved to know what he expected of them. Therefore, he said that anyone who is willing to sacrifice their life in this world will preserve it for eternal life. It all comes down to love. Remember, when Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, he said that the entire law—the law that Jeremiah said would be written upon our hearts—could be summed up in two commandments: love God and love your neighbor. So now when Jesus says, “Whoever loves his [or her] life loses it,” he contrasts them with one who “hates his [or her] life in this world” (John 12:25). But he could also contrast one’s true loves: one’s own life or God and neighbor. Our challenge is to love God and love neighbor more than our own life.
- Witness a grain of wheat, or truly a seed of any kind. If kept in a jar and prevented from germinating, it will lose its power to generate new life and eventually rot. But planted in soil, it will break open and grow into a plant that dwarfs its original size. This is what Jesus envisions for us. If we are willing to sacrifice our own self-interest, we can act out of love for others, producing much fruit in the garden of the kingdom.
Question of the Week
What part of myself that I’ve become attached to in a self-centered way can “die” so that I will clear more space in my heart and my schedule for love of neighbor?
-from Pastoral Patterns
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readings of the mass
LISTEN HERE to the Audio Recordings of the Readings of Sunday, March 17, 2024
SELECT HERE for the Readings of Sunday, March 17, 2024
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Offerings
The Sunday offerings are a portion of our blessings that we give to God (Church) in gratitude to what God has done for us...ONLINE GIVING OPTIONS -
Reflections on the readings
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