New Covenant
Second Sunday of Easter
Almighty and everlasting God, who in the Paschal mystery
established the new covenant of reconciliation: Grant that all
who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ's Body
may show forth in their lives what they profess by their faith;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
established the new covenant of reconciliation: Grant that all
who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ's Body
may show forth in their lives what they profess by their faith;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
The theological assertion of tomorrow’s prayer, collect of the day, is that God in the Paschal mystery established the new covenant of reconciliation. The Paschal mystery is the divine plan of salvation revealed and brought to fulfillment by God’s own suffering, death and resurrection in Jesus Christ, Son of God and God the Son. “New covenant” implies an old covenant, God’s covenant of unity with Abraham, I will be your God and you will be my people, sealed in the blood of circumcision. Though God is faithful, people are not faithful, and the old covenant is broken. The new covenant, sealed in the blood of Jesus Christ, reconciles us to God. We join the new covenant through baptism, we continually recommit to it through the Body and Blood of the Eucharist, and we live it by obedience to the new commandment, Love one another; as I have loved you, love one another. The collect then petitions God for the grace (grant that) to do what we promise to do. Thus in the Baptismal Covenant, first “do you believe?” and then, therefore, “will you?” Tomorrow's prayer is not so much ethereal fluff; it asks God to help us be worthy of what we claim to be. Believing alone is meaningless. In the new covenant, believing carries the obligation and commitment to live life in a certain way, specifically the way of the cross.
TW+