Friday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time
January 22, 2021
Daily Reading from the USCCB: Hebrews 8:6-13
Jesus’ priestly ministry in the sanctuary of heaven is based on a new–a better–covenant than God first made with his people. In today’s reading from Hebrews the author contrasts this new covenant with the old. The old covenant offered God’s people freedom from slavery in Egypt and possession of the promised land. The Israelites were not faithful to their part of this covenant.
The new covenant expressed in Christ, consists in a relationship of interiority between the people and God. They will know God directly in their hearts, and God will forgive their sins.
This new covenant renders the old covenant obsolete, and any desire to hang on to the old–as some of the readers of Hebrews wanted to do–is misplaced.
