1st week in Lent, Saturday – 24th February 2024 – Deut 26,16-19; Mt 5,43-48
Mutual Covenant
Today’s first reading introduces one of the many covenants that God made with humanity and his people – the Covenant of Deuteronomy. Compared to the original covenant at Mount Sinai, which was the ‘First Law’ this covenant was a lesser covenant and was given because of Israel’s hardness of heart. Their idolatry, apostasy and their sins led them away from God. This Deuteronomy covenant had the purpose of restoring and rehabilitating the twelve tribes after their apostasy at Baal-Peor. This second law, given by Moses, wanted Israel to recognize its weakness and inability to achieve holiness without God’s help. The path that leads to this holiness of life is marked out by the Lord’s statutes, commandments, and decrees. This path is characterized especially by docile obedience to the voice of God. This is mutually binding contact.
