Friday – 2nd Week of Lent – A

This is the Church, and if one is to be totally faithful to the Lord, it is the Catholic Church. Yet we too, like the Old Testament people, need to be careful that we do not think our identity is more about our affiliation with the institution of the Church—even if it is founded by Jesus himself—and not based more on our fidelity, our adherence to his will as it is expressed through his legitimate shepherds and teachers, the bishops united with him in the one faith he has given to us.

So I thought today we could take a brief look at this progression through Scripture passages and the insights of the Church Fathers which illustrate this shift from the Old Testament Israel to the New Testament Israel. And what happened there?

First of all, God chooses Israel as his people. The Old Testament establishes Israel as the covenant people of God. “Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples; for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:5–6). And then in Deuteronomy we find: “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession out of all the peoples that are on the face of the earth” (Deuteronomy 7:6).

But this election, my brothers and sisters, was always conditional upon fidelity. Look at what the Lord says in Deuteronomy: “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil… if your heart turns away… you shall surely perish” (Deuteronomy 30:15,17–18).

Saint Irenaeus of Lyons explains that Israel's election was meant to prepare the coming of Christ and the universal people of God. In his treatise Against Heresies he writes that, "God formed beforehand a people for himself so that through them he might prepare the coming of his Son and accustom mankind to bear God."

So Israel's infidelity throughout the generations came with many prophetic warnings. The prophets warned that being the chosen people externally is not enough, and this is the main thrust even of the Gospel today. From the prophet Amos we hear: “I hate, I despise your feasts… Take away from me the noise of your songs; but let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:21–24).

God even foretells that another people will provoke Israel to jealousy. He says: “They have made me jealous with what is no god… so I will make them jealous with those who are no people” (Deuteronomy 32:21). In other words, they replaced him with false idols, and he will replace them with those who were not a chosen people. Now when I say replace them, I mean the corrupt, the ones who were not true Israelites in their hearts. And this is so important to keep in mind. We're not coming down hard on an ethnic group of people. The warning is against those who publicize their righteousness but inside, as Jesus says, are full of dead men's bones and old corruption.

This theme appears again with John the Baptist when he says: “Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham” (Matthew 3:9). In other words, it is not about affiliation.

Saint Justin Martyr states plainly that the prophets already foretold the transfer of God's people. In his Dialogue with Trypho he writes that we who have been led to God through this crucified Christ are the true spiritual Israel.

Now did God promise a new covenant? Of course. The prophets foresee a renewed covenant and a renewed people. Through Jeremiah God says: “Behold, the days are coming… when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah… I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts” (Jeremiah 31:31–33). And in Ezekiel he says: “I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you” (Ezekiel 36:26).

Saint Augustine explains that this new covenant would form a new people of God. He writes: “The New Testament lies hidden in the Old, and the Old is revealed in the New.”

So the Fathers consistently saw the old Israel as a preparation for the universal people of God. This is why in today's Gospel Jesus admonishes the scribes and the Pharisees who oppose him and harden their hearts. “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing its fruits” (Matthew 21:43).

Now a nation producing its fruits means anyone from any nation becomes part of the true Israel, the chosen nation, the new people of God—his kingdom on earth—whether Jew or Greek or pagan, Italian, Chinese, French, Canadian, American. That is not of primary concern to God. Now it is the heart and your love for Jesus, your love for the only begotten Son of God who came into the world not to condemn us but to save us. Whoever receives him now belongs to the new Israel of God.

But to receive him means what? To receive him means we receive all of him. We do not just receive his feet into our home—we receive his entire body, head to toe. We cannot just pick and choose parts of Jesus. All the sacraments he left us, the Church that he left us, the mother that he left us from the cross—this is what it means also to be a part of the new Israel of God. But more importantly, to remain pure in our hearts and in our minds, to be honest, to reach out to the poor, to love our enemies, do good to those who persecute us and pray for them, even those who hate us.

Now we know what it means to belong to Jesus, but it is not always easy to do so. So my brothers and sisters, rejoice, for you have a wonderful opportunity to be true Israelites—that is, the true chosen people of God—by your link, your relationship to Christ. Focus on that. Build on that. Refine that relationship through prayer. Grow in your passion, your dedication, your resolve.

This is what Lent is all about: that we change from our former ways to the Spirit of Christ. And this is the true Israel of God in the hearts of men, his kingdom on earth, a foreshadowing, a foretaste of what it will be in heaven.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.