Saints Joachim and Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin

The Responsorial Psalm paints a picture of a happy life on earth. It urges us: “Offer to God a sacrifice of praise,” but in the context of a community that recognizes God’s creation as “perfect in beauty,” his covenant as the way of truth and justice, and his fidelity to those who “call upon him in time of distress” (Psalm 50). 

Exodus 24: 3-8 is the account of the great moment when the Jews, as a whole People, formally entered into their covenant with God. 

First, Moses built an altar of stones to declare the presence of God. He assembled the whole people around it. In front of each tribe, he built a pillar of stones, twelve to represent the twelve tribes. He offered bulls in sacrifice, took half of the blood, and dashed it against the altar. Then he took the book of the covenant, and read it to the people; and they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will heed and do.” Then Moses took the rest of the blood and dashed it on the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words of his.” 

Later, Jesus would repeat this scene. At the Last Supper, he gathered his twelve apostles, who represented the Church. There had to be twelve apostles to show that the Church was the continuation of the Chosen People, the twelve tribes of Israel (see Revelation 21:12-21; Acts 1: 15-26; Ephesians 2:20). “While they were eating, Jesus… took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant….’” The old Covenant was sealed in the blood of bulls; the New Covenant in the blood of Christ. Each time we drink the cup of his blood at Mass, we “Offer to God a sacrifice of praise” as a community, recognizing God’s fidelity by renewing and ratifying the Covenant between God and us. 

The old Covenant was basically contractual: if the Jews would “be God’s people” by keeping His laws, then God would “be their God” by taking care of them. The New Covenant is a mystery of shared life: by drinking Christ’s blood, we commit to live as Christ’s body animated by his Spirit. What weakened or violated the old Covenant was non-observance of the Law. But in Matthew 13: 24-30 Jesus describes the New Covenant as being attacked by the sowing of bad seed: a lesser life-form. Fidelity to the New Covenant is not measured just by external observance; it is a mystery of the heart, of deep interior life. We cannot always identify “good seed” or “bad seed” by judgments based on external behavior alone. Christ’s ministers must always be aware they are dealing with a mystery: God’s life in others. 

— Fr. David M. Knight

View today’s Mass readings, Lectionary #400, on the USCCB website here

Fr. David M. Knight (1931-2021) was a priest of the Diocese of Memphis in Tennessee, a prolific writer, and a highly sought after confessor, spiritual director, and retreat master. He authored more than 40 books and hundreds of articles that focus primarily on lay spirituality and life-long spiritual growth.