Remember Your Covenant

Gustave Doré [Public domain],
via Wikimedia Commons 

Memorial of Saints Joachim and Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary

By Melanie Rigney

For your name’s sake spurn us not, disgrace not the throne of your glory; remember your covenant with us, and break it not. (Jeremiah 14:21)

For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us. (Psalm 79:9)

“The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his Kingdom all who cause others to sin and all evildoers. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears ought to hear.”  (Matthew 13:41)

Piety

Open my ears, Lord, to Your message of salvation. Close them to those who would tempt me. Close my lips when I am tempted to lead others to sin.

Study

Covenant.

It means a promise, a contract, and agreement. We find it often in the New American Bible, Revised Edition’s Old Testament—more than 200 times. God makes covenants with Jeremiah, Adam and Eve, Moses, and more.

We see the word far few times in the New Testament—35, by a quick scan, and fewer than ten times, including notes, in the Gospels. Why is that? Perhaps because Jesus is the Living Covenant, the tangible fulfillment of all those Old Testament promises.

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus reminds us of what will happen at the end for those of us who prefer to live a life that doesn’t honor our end of the covenant. It isn’t pretty; He talks of a fiery furnace and the “wailing and grinding of teeth.” For the righteous, all will be well, shining like the sun.

Covenant.

We know the Lord will honor his end of the deal. Whether we will is up to us.

Whoever has ears ought to hear, indeed.

Action

Tonight, examine where you honored the covenant… and where you instead fostered or embraced sin or evil. Pray for forgiveness, and the courage to do better tomorrow.