First Reading - Hebrews 8:6-13
Gospel - Mark 3:13-19
The first reading raises in its most acute form the question of the present status of the Jews, especially the final verse of the reading: ‘By speaking of a new covenant, he implies that the first one is already old. Now anything old only gets more antiquated until in the end it disappears.’ This has been read as teaching that God’s covenant with the Jewish people has lapsed and been superseded by the New Covenant of Jesus at the Last Supper.
It has been suggested that the context is so strongly linked to sacrifice and priesthood that the supersession concerns only those two related topics of worship, that the priesthood and sacrifice of the Old Law was about to fall away, as indeed it did after the destruction of the Temple.
The further implications of the passage also suggest a contrast between the Old and the New Covenant. The Old Covenant becomes antiquity because of the disloyalty of the people but through the loyalty of Christ a New Covenant is established. Therefore, the New Covenant is rested on the loyalty of Christ, hence is enduring.
The gospel passage narrates the call of the twelve. Jesus calls the twelve to himself - to be with him and be sent out to preach the good news and are empowered to cast out devils. The apostles enjoyed a great privilege to be with Jesus and to learn from him followed by their apostolic mission of evangelisation of the good news and vesting of power to cast out devils or vanquish the dominion of evil in the world.
Dear friends, by the very fact we are baptized we become the followers of Jesus. However, today we are challenged by the readings to become loyal followers of Jesus. The first reading highlights the disloyalty of people that led them to the dissolution of the covenant; whereas, the loyalty of Jesus leads people to a new covenant where Jesus stands as the mediator for all. Therefore, the loyalty of Jesus sets an invitation for us to become loyal like him.
The gospel teaches us that we can remain loyal to Jesus by being willing to be with him, learning from him or being taught in the school of Jesus like the apostles. Jesus teaches us through the Sacred Scriptures and the Magisterium. Let's listen to him.
However, there is also a danger of being disloyal to Jesus like Judas Iscariot who was with Jesus but was not changed because of his worldly concerns rather than the concerns of Jesus about the kingdom. We can also become disloyal disciples of Jesus if we don't allow ourselves to be taught by Jesus or when the worldly concerns overcome us and become priority of our lives, as a result we can also betray Jesus like Judas Iscariot.
Let's pray that the wordly concerns may not lead us astray from Jesus that we may remain loyal to him always.
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