The contrast between the processional reading in today’s liturgy and the proclamation of the Passion is striking. We are given a glimpse of how profoundly the word of God is fulfilled in Jesus.

Because the people broke the old covenant, God promised a new covenant, not in the blood of oxen and other animals, but in the blood of the Son, Jesus Christ. This new covenant, foreseen from afar by Jeremiah and the prophets, was not to be engraved on stone, or written on paper, but carved on our hearts so that we might know God intimately. Not by keeping many laws are we to be saved, but by the love of God, living and real in our hearts through the sacrifice of Christ.

The people of God forgot the covenant and flouted God’s laws. They did not listen to the prophets among them, who spoke for God in warning them. Prophets are sent from God to remind us why we are here, but they are often, even in our own time, mocked, disregarded, and mistreated rather than thanked and listened to.

There’s no better way to deepen our Lenten practice than to review the Ten Commandments. The first three, having to do with our right relationship to God, get the most ink. The one we busy people probably have the most problem with is keeping holy the Sabbath.