Our Mass reading from Monday, March 1st demonstrates how Christ Jesus fulfills the Old Testament. Daniel 9:4b-10 begins, “Lord, great and awesome God, you who keep your merciful covenant toward those who love you and observe your commandments.” As the passage continues, it describes how the children of Israel had failed to love and observe God’s commandments. The failure includes the kings and princes as well as the fathers in antiquity. The passage appears somewhat disconnected because the missing component is the Word made flesh. We notice that the Lord is merciful, he is compassion and forgiveness, yet the people rebel and won’t listen. They won’t listen to laws given to them through the prophets. Daniel knows and praises God for his greatness, and the people know the same for they are “shamefaced” now as they were in the past. The remedy for all this brokenness and the consequences is Christ Jesus. He changes everything. It becomes, Lord, great and awesome God, You, who keep Your merciful covenant toward all of Your creation, all Your children great and small. Never to be shamefaced again, for the burden of your guilt will never outweigh the goodness of your creation, as a child of God, who you are. Listen now to the Word of the Lord, once and for all; for the Lord, your God speaks now and forever for all the prophets who have come before. I, your God, give you now and forever, a better covenant. A way forward, a way of right worship, sharing with each other your portion of your divine nature. I give you the Seven Sacred Sacraments. Love through these Sacraments, live, and learn through these Sacraments the peace I give you, the peace I leave you. Now and forever, through all generations, honor these Sacraments and you shall walk with Me in heaven as I have walked with you on earth.
In Luke’s gospel, 6:36-38 he answers Daniel. Luke recounts Jesus speaking to His disciples. It’s not karma, it’s spiritual physics. It appears to be an appeal to cause and effect, do this to get that, however, it is much more. Jesus uses judging, giving, and forgiving as examples. He is telling the people how their relationships should be. He is telling them to give an outpouring of their gifts to each other. He is telling them to love their neighbor as they love themselves. The message is, by your actions you are giving the material world permission to act as you have acted. He is telling them to behave through their brokenness, letting their divine nature shine through, because they are created creatures made in the image and likeness of the Lord. He says, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”