From: Jeremiah 31:31-34
The New Covenant
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Commentary:
31:31-37. The words of this oracle are central to Jeremiah’s message, and they
constitute the passage in the book that has had most impact on the New Testa-
ment and on Christian teaching. Most ancient and modern commentators consi-
der these words to be original words of Jeremiah, and they generally attribute
them to the early stages of his ministry, because they express support for King
Josiah’s religious reform.
The oracle is made up of two contrasting parts: the first (vv. 31-32) describes the
Old Covenant, broken by the people’s sins; the second (vv. 33-35) speaks very
forcefully of the New Covenant which will endure forever.
The old Covenant is described in terms of three characteristic features: it carried
the force of tradition because it was a pact made “with the fathers”; it was a sign
of divine election, as can be seen from a phrase exclusive to Jeremiah: “when “I
took them by the hand” to bring them out of the land of Egypt”; and it showed the
Lord’s authority over his people.
The new pact has three key features, too: it is “new”, it is something “interior”,
and it is “heartfelt”, written upon their hearts. It is “new”, because prior to this
the pact with God was never described in that way; that is, it is new not in terms
of the previous covenant which has ceased to operate (cf. Heb 8:18-13) but in the
sense that it is definitive and will not be superseded. When, at the Last Supper,
Jesus said the words of consecration over the chalice: “This cup which is poured
out for you is the new covenant” (Lk 22:20; 1 Cor 11:25), he brings Jeremiah’s
words to fulfillment. It is “interior” because it is etched in the heart of the people
and of each individual. Its content did not change (it is the Law of God) but peo-
ple will know it in a different way: the previous covenant was written on tablets
of stone (Ex 31:38; 34:28ff), but this one will be written on the heart and soul of
man. Therefore, it is part of a person’s very being; it is not just an external obli-
gation; people’s well-formed consciences tell them what they ought to do; if they
fail to live up to the demands of the Covenant, they lose their identity until they
are converted and are redeemed from sin. In the Letter to the Hebrews it says,
by way of explaining this passage, that in the New Covenant Christ has obtained
forgiveness of sins for us through the cross, and therefore the old sin offerings no
longer have any effect: “Where there is forgiveness (of sins), there is no longer
any offering for sin” (Heb 10:18).
Finally, it is “heartfelt” because it is based on a loving relationship between God
and his people. The wording that Jeremiah likes so much (”I will be their God,
and they shall be my people” (Jer 31:33; cf. 7:23) implies bonds, of fidelity and
love. The nearest precedent for this is Hosea, who used the metaphor of mar-
riage as the hinge of his preaching and who defined sin as estrangement from
God, and punishment in terms of marital breakdown: “Call his name not my peo-
ple, for you are not my people and I am not your God” (Hos 1:9). Therefore, mo-
ral imperatives should not come via legal imposition from outside; they should
arise from a person’s heart—the aim being not so much perfect, guiltless behavior
as living in union with God: “All who keep his commandments abide in him, and
he in them” (1 Jn 3:24).
The New Covenant has given its name to the, “New Testament”, on which the
new people of God is founded, as the Second Vatican Council says: “At all times
and in every race God has given welcome to whosoever fears him and does what
is right. God, however, does not make men holy and save them merely as indivi-
duals, without bond or link between one another. Rather has it pleased him to
bring men together as one people, a people that acknowledges him in truth and
serves him in holiness. He therefore chose the race of Israel as a people unto
himself. With it he set up a covenant. Step by step he taught and prepared this
people, making known in its history both himself and the decree of his will and
making it holy unto himself. All these things, however, were done by way of pre-
paration and as a figure of that new and perfect covenant, which was to be rati-
fied in Christ, and of that fuller revelation which was to be given through the Word
of God Himself made flesh. ‘Behold the days shall come saith the Lord, and I will
make a new covenant with the House of Israel, and with the house of Judah. [...]
I will give my law in their bowels, and I will write it in their heart, and I will be their
God, and they shall be my people.[...] For all of them shall know Me, from the
least of them even to the greatest, saith the Lord’ (Jer 31:31-34). Christ instituted
this new covenant, the new testament, that is to say, in his Blood, calling toge-
ther a people made up of Jew and Gentile, making them one, not according to
the flesh but in the Spirit” (”Lumen Gentium”, 9).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
From: Matthew 16:13-23
Peter’s Profession of Faith and His Primacy
Jesus Foretells His Passion and Resurrection
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Commentary:
13-20. In this passage St. Peter is promised primacy over the whole Church, a
primacy which Jesus will confer on him after His Resurrection, as we learn in the
Gospel of St. John (cf. John 21:15-18). This supreme authority is given to Peter
for the benefit of the Church. Because the Church has to last until the end of time,
this authority will be passed on to Peter’s successors down through history. The
Bishop of Rome, the Pope, is the successor of Peter.
The solemn Magisterium of the Church, in the First Vatican Council, defined the
doctrine of the primacy of Peter and his successors in these terms: “We teach
and declare, therefore, according to the testimony of the Gospel that the primacy
of jurisdiction over the whole Church was immediately and directly promised to
and conferred upon the blessed Apostle Peter by Christ the Lord. For to Simon,
Christ had said, ‘You shall be called Cephas’ (John 1:42). Then, after Simon had
acknowledged Christ with the confession, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the li-
ving God’ (Matthew 16:16), it was to Simon alone that the solemn words were
spoken by the Lord: ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona. For flesh and blood has
not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in Heaven. And I tell you, you are
Peter, and on this rock I will build My Church, and the powers of Hell shall not
prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and whatever
you bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven, and what you loose on earth shall
be loosed in Heaven’ (Matthew 16:17-19). And after His Resurrection, Jesus con-
ferred upon Simon Peter alone the jurisdiction of supreme shepherd and ruler
over His whole fold with the words, ‘Feed My lambs....Feed My sheep’ (John 21:
15-17) [...]
“Now, what Christ the Lord, Supreme Shepherd and watchful guardian of the
flock, established in the person of the blessed Apostle Peter for the perpetual
safety and everlasting good of the Church must, by the will of the same, endure
without interruption in the Church which was founded on the rock and which will
remain firm until the end of the world. Indeed, ‘no one doubts, in fact it is obvious
to all ages, that the holy and most blessed Peter, Prince and head of the Apos-
tles, the pillar of faith, and the foundation of the Catholic Church, received the
keys of the kingdom from our Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior and the Redeemer
of the human race; and even to this time and forever he lives,’ and governs, ‘and
exercises judgment in his successors’ (cf. Council of Ephesus), the bishops of
the holy Roman See, which he established and consecrated with his blood.
Therefore, whoever succeeds Peter in this Chair holds Peter’s primacy over the
whole Church according to the plan of Christ Himself [...]. For this reason, ‘be-
cause of its greater sovereignty,’ it was always ‘necessary for every church, that
is, the faithful who are everywhere, to be in agreement’ with the same Roman
Church [...]
“We think it extremely necessary to assert solemnly the prerogative which the
only-begotten Son of God deigned to join to the highest pastoral office. “And so,
faithfully keeping to the tradition received from the beginning of the Christian faith,
for the glory of God our Savior, for the exaltation of the Catholic religion, and for
the salvation of Christian peoples, We, with the approval of the sacred council,
teach and define that it is a divinely revealed dogma: that the Roman Pontiff,
when he speaks “ex cathedra”, that is, when, acting in the office of shepherd and
teacher of all Christians, he defines, by virtue of his supreme apostolic authority,
doctrine concerning faith or morals to be held by the universal Church, posses-
ses through the divine assistance promised to him in the person of St. Peter, the
infallibility with which the divine Redeemer willed His Church to be endowed in de-
fining doctrine concerning faith or morals; and that such definitions of the Roman
Pontiff are therefore irreformable because of their nature, but not because of the
agreement of the Church.
“(Canon) But if anyone presume to contradict this our definition (God forbid that
he do so): let him be condemned” (Vatican I, “Pastor Aeternus”, chaps. 1, 2
and 4).
23. Jesus rejects St. Peter’s well-intentioned protestations, giving us to under-
stand the capital importance of accepting the cross if we are to attain salvation
(cf. 1 Corinthians 1:23-25). Shortly before this (Matthew 16:17) Jesus had pro-
mised Peter: “Blessed are you, Simon”; now He reproves him: “Get behind me,
Satan.” In the former case Peter’s words were inspired by the Holy Spirit, where-
as what he says now comes from his own spirit which he has not yet sloughed
off.
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.