Understanding the Word

By Dianne Bergant, C.S.A.

Although Jeremiah was a southern prophet who prophesied long after the collapse of the northern kingdom, his message was full of promise for both northern  and southern kingdoms. He announced that in the future time of eschatological  fulfillment, both kingdoms would be united once again in a new covenant. The  old covenant included laws inscribed on stone tablets; the law of the new covenant will be written on their hearts. Each individual will be directed from within.  This will require total openness to God and the ability to discern God’s will from  a myriad of possibilities. 

The passage from Hebrews states that Jesus endured torment of body and  anguish of soul. He can fully understand human distress and the desire to escape  it. He can speak to those in affliction as one who himself was ravaged by sorrow,  but who nonetheless clung fast to God’s will. From a human point of view, he is  one with the human condition. From God’s point of view, he is the one who can  show others how to accept with docility circumstances over which they have no  control. Just as he learned to accept God’s designs in his life, so now he teaches  others to do the same. 

The Gospel reading reports the approach of “some Greeks.” This mention of  Greeks suggests the inclusion of the Gentile world in the salvation brought by  Jesus. Jesus replies to their approach with an announcement: His hour has come!  This is both the hour of his glorification and the hour that he dreads. The relationship between his anguish and his exaltation is demonstrated through the image  of the grain of wheat that must die if it is to rise. The interior struggle that Jesus  endured is revealed in his prayer. Should he ask to be preserved from this hour  of anguish/exaltation? But it was for this hour that he came into the world in the  first place. Therefore, he accepts it.

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