Today in the Gospel Jesus indicates His part of the covenant. He will go up to Jerusalem. There He will die for us. He will seal the covenant. Not in print, but in His own blood. What is our part of the covenant? Jesus states it this way: “Those who wish to come after me must deny their very selves, take up their cross, and begin to follow in my footsteps.” This may seem a strange kind of love, to have to take up the cross in order to come to the fullness of life, but it is God’s wisdom, His plan. During the Eucharistic prayer, and especially at the time of the consecration, we are to join Christ our priest in offering ourselves to God the Father just as Jesus offered himself on the cross. That will be our way of saying that we want to follow God’s will in our lives. It will be our way of confirming our covenant with the Father, a covenant sealed in the blood of Christ, the blood of the new and everlasting covenant.
We must continue to reflect on the terms of the covenant. With faith and God’s grace we can accept the terms gladly because by doing so we unite ourselves with Jesus Christ who will lead us to the fullness of love which is the real meaning of our covenant with God.