Reflection for Thursday, August 7, 2014: 18th week in Ordinary Time.

Abstract

|Jeremiah prophesies, announcing that the Lord will establish a "new" covenant with His people, and at first it is not obvious what the new element is. After all, He still insists that He will be their God and they will be His people and that He will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more. |The new aspect, I think, is that He will instill His law directly into our hearts and will do it so thoroughly that we will not have to learn the law by human teaching and learning: knowing (and following?) His law will be second nature to us, so to speak. But not really a "second" nature if we believe in what God created us for: He called us into existence to be ecstatically happy in knowing and loving Him and so finding our happiness in serving Him as loving children of His family.... |Does this sound suspiciously like living completely filled with the Holy Spirit? Living like Mary? Living our Baptism and Confirmation in every way and at every moment? If so, we are not there yet, not as a world, not as the People of God, and not as individuals, not even at rare moments. We must continue to aspire to such a life, to pray for such a living, and to work at opening ourselves in loving generosity to such a call from our Father, through His Son, and into His Spirit.