2nd Friday in Ordinary time, Year 1, also feast of St. Francis de Sales, January 24, 2025
Heb 8:6-13; Ps 85:8, 10-14; Mk 3:13-19
Covenants are not something we hear about much anymore, unless you happen to own a lot of property, or are a lawyer. They are agreements that go beyond a contract. Contracts can be broken, covenants last forever, or until the terms of the covenant are met. We make covenants with utility companies, cities and townships on our properties, so they can improve them by adding roads and utilities. Rarely do we see business covenants anymore, but when we see a marriage, we have a covenant. A marriage covenant between the man, woman, and God. The promise to remain together and be faithful to each other and to God, until death do they part.
We continue this week with the theme of Jesus as a high priest and the covenant between God and His people. But in this case, the writer is reminding the Hebrews of the promise from Jerimiah (Jer 31), that the old days are over, and a new covenant is coming. This new covenant is the one of love, the one instituted by Jesus Christ. This promise of the new covenant, however, while it does replace the old, the promise that God will be our God, and we His people, still stands. It just becomes part of the new covenant, the one Jesus brought to us and preached, the one of love. I always like to remind people that the Beatitudes did not replace the Ten commandments, but Jesus improved upon the Ten commandments by adding mercy and love. This is the effect of Jesus’ new covenant, the one of mercy and love.
In order to accomplish the task of teaching everyone about His new covenant, Jesus needed help. Of course He could have done it on His own, but He needed people to help spread the word so they would take ownership of the message. Sort of like empowering them to do their job. As the scripture says, the 12 disciples represent the 12 tribes of Israel, which are representative of the old covenant. It is time to end the old covenant and begin the new covenant of the Church; the new covenant, which we will hear more about in the coming weeks. In the meantime, we hear from Jesus that it is time to flush out the old and bring in the new.
Today is also the feast of Saint Francis de Sales, one who was called by God from his secular life. Where he would have been a great lawyer, he followed God’s call and became a founder of orders and a Doctor of the Church. St. Francis took the covenant with God literally as he became a priest. Born in 1567, he studied in several places, planning on becoming a lawyer. But God had a different idea, and he was ordained a priest in 1593. St. Francis rose in ranks in the Church by becoming a Bishop. Through his writings, most notably, “Introduction to the Devout Life,” and “Treatise on the love of God,” he became a Doctor of the Church. Along with St. Jane de Chantel, they founded the order of The Visitation. He died in 1622 and was canonized in 1653. St. Francis de Sales was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1877. In 1923 he was declared the patron of the Catholic Press.
Saint James Catholic Church 