A NEW COVENANT IN HIS BLOOD

Sunday fifth week of lent/2024
Reflection from Friar Nick Okeke, OP

Theme: A new covenant in his blood

God is love and does all things in view of our salvation. At the fullness of time, he came to our rescue with his love which has no limit. The fullness of time is considered with reference to us, and not with respect to God. Time and season have meaning only with reference to us. Thus, when God decided to make a new covenant with his people, he considered an appropriate time to pour out the fullness of his love for the salvation of human race gone astray in sin. The new covenant is to have the satisfaction of the demands of the Law by his Son, so that the merit of his righteousness would be applied to us sinners. What are the merits of the Son’s obedience to the Father’s will? “This is the covenant I will make with the House of Israel when those days arrive—it is the Lord who speaks. Deep within them I will plant my Law, writing it on their hearts. Then I will be their God and they shall be my people.” The presence of the Holy Spirit as the new Law within the hearts of believers is the result of the new Covenant. The covenant is between God and the human nature which his Son assumed and consecrated to God’s will. By this covenant, knowledge and love of God are prepaid packages delivered to the renewed humanity. The payment was made by the only Begotten Son of God in his humanity. This payment or sacrifice is what the life of the Son of Man was essentially. “During his life on earth, Christ offered up prayer and entreaty, aloud and in silent tears, to the one who had the power to save him out death, and he submitted so humbly that his prayer was heard.” His prayer was heard because he committed no sin; he was without sin because his life was a sacrifice or prayer for our forgiveness and redemption.

The prayer of the Son in his humanity was not for himself but for us sinners; it was a sacrifice offered to his Father for the forgiveness of our sins. By sacrificing or dedicating his life to the Father in a new Covenant, he glorified the Father by proclaiming the Father’s will holy. The Father glorified him by hearing his prayer for the forgiveness of our sins. “Now the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you, most solemnly, unless a wheat grain falls on the ground and dies, it remains only a single grain; but if it dies, it yields a rich harvest.” This is the principle of renewal of humanity. The new or redeemed humanity is rooted in the death of the old man. The old man dies when we decide to pattern our lives on that of Jesus Christ and cease to follow our will in anything. By the consecration of our wills in such manner to follow him, we receive the Holy Spirit as the principle of a new life and communion with God. The Father gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit to glorify Jesus Christ who gave him glory by his sacrificial life. “If a man serves me, he must follow me, wherever I am, my servant will be there too. If anyone serves me, my Father will honour him.” This sacrifice or dedication he made of his humanity was ratified by his blood on the Cross of Calvary as the outcome of his sacrifice. The presentation of prayer happens in the heavenly courtroom. So, the prayer of Jesus won a hearing because the evil one had no grip on his life. Therefore, the government of this world is handed over to the Lamb as the Head of the renewed humanity, and the prince of the world is overthrown. The victory of the Lamb is for us if we sacrifice our life for him as he did for his Father for the love of us.

Let us pray: Grant us, Lord, to walk eagerly in that same charity with which, out of love for the world, your Son handed himself over to death.