Note: On Tuesdays and some Sundays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
Covenant.
It means a promise, a contract, and agreement. We find it often in the New American 
Bible, Revised Edition’s Old Testament—more than 200 times. God makes covenants with Jeremiah (depicted at the left), Adam and Eve, Moses, and more.
We see the word far few times in the New Testament—35, by a quick scan, and fewer than ten times, including notes, in the Gospels. Why is that? Perhaps because Jesus is the Living Covenant, the tangible fulfillment of all those Old Testament promises.
In today’s Gospel reading from Matthew 13, Jesus reminds us of what will happen at the end for those of us who prefer to live a life that doesn’t honor our end of the covenant. It isn’t pretty; He talks of a fiery furnace and the “wailing and grinding of teeth.” For the righteous, all will be well, shining like the sun.
Covenant.
We know the Lord will honor his end of the deal. Whether we will is up to us.
Whoever has ears ought to hear, indeed.
