Saturday of the First Week of Lent Year 1 2023

Title

Covenants have Implications

Outline

People sign contracts without reading them

They do not realize that there are restrictions on their house or car purchase - they are just delighted with the purchase

They may become citizens without realizing that they have responsibilities - they have simply accepted the version they were told

Likewise, especially in the Protestant world and where catechesis has been poor in the Catholic Church, people “become Christians” without realizing that they have obligations

Deuteronomy is a covenant summary, a suzerainty treaty

There are obligations on the part of the people: “he will be your God, and you will walk in his ways, observe his statutes, commandments, and ordinances, and obey his voice.” In the first statement, “he will be your God” are really contained all the other obligations.

There are obligations God places himself under: “you will be a people specially his own, as he promised you, you will keep all his commandments [notice that this is included with the covenant benefits as well as the obligations], and he will set you high in praise and renown and glory above all nations he has made, and you will be a people holy to the LORD, your God, as he promised.”

God’s promises are great and wonderful, but to realize them one must change one’s lifestyle: we would say repent and become a disciple of Jesus

Now Jesus is reinterpreting the Torah, especially the Ten Words

These are the core covenant stipulations

He comes to: ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ That is nowhere in the Torah, although one can find something like it in Qumran’s Rule of the Community. So here he is correcting a misperception of the covenant.

Now he gives his teaching: if one wants the covenant benefits, “I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your heavenly Father . . .” This love is seeking the good of the other, not having warm feelings about them. I have no idea what Jesus qua man was feeling about those crucifying them, but I know that he sought their good in prayer in “Father, forgive them.” Feelings may or may not follow the choice of love, but they are not necessary.

Yet notice how these actions are rooted in being: you do this so that you “may be children of your heavenly Father.” Being a child of your heavenly Father is a covenant promise, but if we do not allow his nature to flow through us we are always talking about being children of our heavenly Father and never actually becoming. It is he who makes us true children, but only if we say yes to his life in us. That would sound familiar to Our Lady.

Finally, the result of the Beatitudes and the reinterpretation of the Torah is: “be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” This was often written off as something for heaven on the grounds that “no one is perfect,” which meant that people did not seek to be perfect.

However, the word translated “perfect” (teleios) means “mature” or we might say, “fully formed in the likeness of.” It is just as my children in one way or another did not seem like me at birth, but as they grew they became more like me in many ways. (Not in all ways, for they also have a mother who, unlike Mary, is not fully conformed to me, and they also have free will.) They had to practice, they had to allow my being in them to express itself, they had to desire to be like me - much. “Be perfect” is like saying, “Be a saint,” for a saint is like their Father in heaven. They are deified while living. But it was a process.

So, Sisters, let us live out the covenant; let us become teleios

To fail to allow God to form us in this direction is to forfeit the covenant blessings, to be a no-people who think that they are God’s people. Let us pray for such.

To allow God to form us in this direction is to be raised to maturity by a good Father in this life, to be in the process of deification, although we may not see it, just as my children did not see that they were becoming like me.

As an example of progress watch how one is dealing with enemies - those perceived to be hostile to you. Do you want them to “get their deserts,” or do you pray that God will grace them, perhaps with forgiveness, perhaps with blessing them (even blessing them more than you), perhaps with delivering them.

Then we will indeed be a people holy to the Lord, children of our Father in heaven, although we may not know it for we are too busy trying to let him flow through us more so that we can gain the fullness of maturity.

Readings

Catholic Daily Readings 3-4-2023: Saturday of the First Week of Lent

FIRST READING

Deuteronomy 26:16–19

16 This day the LORD, your God, is commanding you to observe these statutes and ordinances. Be careful, then, to observe them with your whole heart and with your whole being. 17 Today you have accepted the LORD’s agreement: he will be your God, and you will walk in his ways, observe his statutes, commandments, and ordinances, and obey his voice. 18 And today the LORD has accepted your agreement: you will be a people specially his own, as he promised you, you will keep all his commandments, 19 and he will set you high in praise and renown and glory above all nations he has made, and you will be a people holy to the LORD, your God, as he promised.

Catholic Daily Readings 3-4-2023: Saturday of the First Week of Lent

RESPONSE

Psalm 119:1b

1 Blessed those whose way is blameless,

who walk by the law of the LORD.

PSALM

Psalm 119:1–2, 4–5, 7–8

1 Blessed those whose way is blameless,

who walk by the law of the LORD.

2 Blessed those who keep his testimonies,

who seek him with all their heart.

4 You have given them the command

to observe your precepts with care.

5 May my ways be firm

in the observance of your statutes!

7 I will praise you with sincere heart

as I study your righteous judgments.

8 I will observe your statutes;

do not leave me all alone.

Catholic Daily Readings 3-4-2023: Saturday of the First Week of Lent

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

2 Corinthians 6:2b

2 For he says:

“In an acceptable time I heard you,

and on the day of salvation I helped you.”

Behold, now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

GOSPEL

Matthew 5:43–48

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? 48 So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Notes

Catholic Daily Readings 3-4-2023: Saturday of the First Week of Lent

SATURDAY, MARCH 4, 2023 | LENT

SATURDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK OF LENT

YEARS 1 & 2 | ROMAN MISSAL | LECTIONARY

On the same date: Saint Casimir

First Reading Deuteronomy 26:16–19

Response Psalm 119:1b

Psalm Psalm 119:1–2, 4–5, 7–8

Gospel Acclamation 2 Corinthians 6:2b

Gospel Matthew 5:43–48

VIOLET