From an old sermon[ an online translation of Cardinal Nicolas of Cusa’s work from the 1400s which addresses the nature of Christ’s suffering in our stead.]:http://jasper-hopkins.info/SermonsCCLXXVI-CCXCIII.pdf Who by the Holy Spirit Offered Himself (around page 201 or so)
The Apostle says that Christ is the Mediator of a New Testament The Law of Moses and the sayings of the Prophets are said to be the Old Testament, i.e., to be a befiguring of the New[Testament]. Lactantius said that the Testament is called Old because it was a closed testament until the death of the Testator. Hence, before the death of the Lawgiver, namely, the Incarnate Word, it remained concealed; but by means of the death, that which was hidden was revealed. And so, the veil of the temple was rent when Christ died.It is as if someone were to bequeath to someone else an almond with an outer-hull and a nut-shell. The whole [almond] is as the testament, or bequest, of a testator. But in the outer-hull there is bitterness;in the nut-shell, hardness. [13] But when the outer-hull is removed and the nut-shell broken open, there is found the new bequest, previously unknown; and it is the fruit of life. Similarly, there is a word hidden within the outer-hull of the written form ......................
It seems to me that the [New Testament] is called a testament because it contains the decree of the adoption of sons, who are to obtain the inheritance so that they are true co-heirs of the Son. And of such a thing it is written-about in the book which no one can read except Christ, who through His voluntary death was made worthy to open the book and to loose its seven seals.Therefore, the Son opens the book, because He explains the hidden meaning and declares that He is the true Heir and that by means of His death He has many brothers and co-heirs. ........ .
For those who were imprisoned because of transgressions, [and] who have been sent forth by grace, came to the inheritance of God. Now, the New Testament is that which God proclaimed for our sake, that which Christ foretold, that which the Holy Spirit wrote in the hearts of His believers, that which renews us by means of true sacraments, of just precepts, and of eternal promises. Augustine in his book of Eighty Three Questions, Chapter 16, marks the difference between the two Testaments.For in the Old [Testament] there are the burdens of servants; in the New [Testament] there is the glory of children. In the former the prefiguring of our possession is known; in the latter that possession is contained. In the former there is fear; in the latter, love. The former pertains to the old man; the latter, to the new man.In the former rigorousness restricts; in the latter love delights.Nevertheless, by the most merciful dispensation of the one God [the New Testament] was set forth and confirmed.-
But as the CCC states:
218 In the course of its history, Israel was able to discover that God had only one reason to reveal himself to them, a single motive for choosing them from among all peoples as his special possession: his sheer gratuitous love. And thanks to the prophets Israel understood that it was again out of love that God never stopped saving them and pardoning their unfaithfulness and sins.
219 God's love for Israel is compared to a father's love for his son. His love for his people is stronger than a mother's for her children. God loves his people more than a bridegroom his beloved; his love will be victorious over even the worst infidelities and will extend to his most precious gift: "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son."
220 God's love is "everlasting": "For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you." Through Jeremiah, God declares to his people, "I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you."
221 But St. John goes even further when he affirms that "God is love": God's very being is love. By sending his only Son and the Spirit of Love in the fullness of time, God has revealed his innermost secret: God himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange.
from comment 33 http://www.calledtocommunion.com/2010/12/a-response-to-darrin-patrick-on-the-indicatives-and-the-imperatives/#comment-50476
Jesus’ whole public ministry is framed around the proclamation that “the kingdom of God has come.” To that end, many of his acts (and words) stand as a sort of New Covenant analog to some old covenant reality. Thus, the calling of the 12 figures the 12 tribes, the sermon on the mount recalls the giving of the law on sinai, the cleansing of the temple and the prophecy of the new temple . . . etc. With, preeminently, the sacrifice of himself as the New Passover Lamb – and the institution of the Lord’s Supper as “the cup of the new covenant in his blood” recalling the blood of the covenant that Moses sprinkled on the people. Even John the baptist participated in this typology/fulfillment by acting as s sort of new Joshua, leading the new covenant people into the new promised land – across the Jordan again – as it were, through baptism.
But, the good news represented here is precisely the message that “God can raise up children of Abraham from these stones,” the new covenant reality is the one in which God writes his law on the heart, and on the mind – by the ministry of the spirit.
So the sermon on the mount is not just upping the ante on legalism. It is rather the charter of the new covenant people – it depicts the reality of new covenant living in the power of the Spirit. And the message “Don’t care about what you eat or wear, for God cares for you more than for birds” is very much a message of Good news – and not just a moral exhortation. Certainly, that is how someone like St. Francis saw it.
a quote from the document :
The new covenant with its new obligations, instituted by Jesus the Christ, is also new because of its unique renewal practice. No longer is it necessary to sacrifice an animal every time the covenant is renewed; the ritual now joins us with the original sacrifice that began in the Upper Room and was completed on Calvary and is continually being presented to God the Father by His Son, the New High Priest and Sacrificial Lamb. In keeping with covenant ritual, the sacrifice is now eaten by the family of Jesus; his Church. This renewal is known as the Liturgy of the Eucharist
and:
s. Going back now to Hebrews 9:6-10, we are given a description of the
priestly tabernacle duties; especially those of the High Priest. What does the High
Priest do in the Holy of Holies? He offers sacrifice, not without blood, for the sins of
the people. Revelation 5 tells us of a lamb that looks as if it has been slain standing
on the throne in the Holy of Holies. Scholars all agree that this is the Lamb of God,
the new High Priest. What sacrifice does the new High Priest offer? Himself; He
entered the Holy of Holies through the shedding of His own blood on the altar of the
cross and has never left. He does not continue to suffer, bleed, and die; He did that
once for all persons for all times so that He could enter heaven and present His
offering. What John is witnessing and relating to us all is that Jesus, in the Eternal
Now of Heaven, is continually offering His most perfect sacrifice in our behalf
(Romans 9:24); this is the perfect offering to God which only He can make. It is an
eternal offering because in heaven there is no past or future, only an eternal now
In order for us to gain the eternal life and Kingdom of God which are the blessings
promised by the covenant, we must individually accept and renew God's covenant
with us; we must accept His invitation to join His family. Just like the original
Passover meal, if we don't eat the Lamb, death will result. For the original Passover
this was a physical death and in this New Covenant it is the curse of the loss of the
Kingdom of God and everlasting life; spiritual death.
........................................
n Saint Paul tells us that if anyone eats and drinks without recognizing the Body
of the Lord eats and drinks judgment upon himself (1 Corinthians 11:29). They will
be guilty of sinning against the Body and Blood of the Lord (1 Corinthians 11:27). In
other words, anyone who takes Holy Communion without believing and affirming
that it truly is the Real Presence (Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity) of Jesus that they
are receiving, makes Jesus' sacrifice on the cross meaningless for them because they
are excluding themselves from the renewal of the covenant.
...........................
The beautiful aspect of this covenant is that we can renew it any time we wish or
need to (provided of course, a priest has consecrated the offering); we can represent, as opposed to represent, the sacrifice that ritually and actually seals our
covenant with God the Father. A sacrifice that does not involve the shedding of
blood; Jesus died once for all persons for all times on Calvary. He does not suffer,
bleed and die again; he simply continually offers His sacrifice in Heaven. It is
through His love for us that He has given His priests the gift of making Him present;
Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, under the appearance of bread and wine so we may
renew the covenant and thus gain the grace of God that is so necessary to enable us
to keep this covenant.
http://www.readability.com/articles/yl3jecf7
The Master Key: Pope Benedict XVI's Theology of Covenant
"What is a covenant?
In the biblical conception, a covenant is not a contract or mutual agreement between God and man, but an unsought gift of God to man. "The covenant then is not a pact built on reciprocity, but rather a gift, a creative act of God's love."3 In their concrete historical realizations, the covenants of God take multiple forms. The Apostle Paul uses "covenants" in the plural to describe God's dealings with Israel (cf. Rom. 9:4). Ratzinger notes, in particular, that the Old Testament distinguishes the Noahite, Abrahamic, Mosaic and Davidic covenants.''
and
By declaring the cup to be the "blood of the covenant," Jesus is stating that his blood, poured out in his Passion and made really present in the Eucharist, will reestablish the bond of kinship between God and man. In this way, "the words of Sinai are intensified to an overwhelming realism." The Last Supper was fundamentally the "sealing of the covenant," and the Eucharist is now "an ongoing reenactment of this covenant renewal." The Letter to the Hebrews describes the institution of the Eucharist, in which the blood of Jesus is really offered to the Father, as "a cosmic Day of Atonement" (cf. Heb. 9:11-14, 24-26).9 In sacramental communion, the disciple is united both physically and spiritually with Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 6:16).10
and
The transitory nature of the Mosaic Law does not imply that the new covenant lacks a law of its own, for Paul also speaks of "the Torah of Christ" (Gal. 6:2), namely, "the dual commandment of love."19 Thus, the new covenant calls all who accept it to "their own faithful conduct" (cf. Heb. 3:13),20 for Christ "imposes duties upon us and challenges us to obedience."2
For Paul, "the promise of Abraham guarantees from the beginning the inner continuity of salvation history, from the patriarchs of Israel to the coming of Christ and the Church of Jews and Gentiles."22 Scripture presents salvation history not as a dichotomy between the new covenant and those of the Old Testament but rather as a "dynamic unity of the entire history." Indeed, from the perspective of eternity, there is only "one covenant," the "eternally valid" covenant of Abraham now perfectly fulfilled in Christ.23
http://www.readability.com/articles/t1pkicwo Covenantal theology
from this above link:
Covenantal theology is a distinctive approach to Catholic biblical theology stemming from the mid-twentieth century recovery of Patristic methods of interpreting Scripture by scholars such as Henri de Lubac. This recovery was given further impetus by Dei Verbum, the Second Vatican Council's "Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation", and consolidated in the section on ScriptureCatechism of the Catholic Church (nos. 101-141). These developments gave rise to an approach that emphasizes the "four senses" of Scripture within a framework that structures salvation history via the biblical covenants, in combination with the techniques of modern biblical scholarship.
and
and
By declaring the cup to be the "blood of the covenant," Jesus is stating that his blood, poured out in his Passion and made really present in the Eucharist, will reestablish the bond of kinship between God and man. In this way, "the words of Sinai are intensified to an overwhelming realism." The Last Supper was fundamentally the "sealing of the covenant," and the Eucharist is now "an ongoing reenactment of this covenant renewal." The Letter to the Hebrews describes the institution of the Eucharist, in which the blood of Jesus is really offered to the Father, as "a cosmic Day of Atonement" (cf. Heb. 9:11-14, 24-26).9 In sacramental communion, the disciple is united both physically and spiritually with Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 6:16).10
and
The transitory nature of the Mosaic Law does not imply that the new covenant lacks a law of its own, for Paul also speaks of "the Torah of Christ" (Gal. 6:2), namely, "the dual commandment of love."19 Thus, the new covenant calls all who accept it to "their own faithful conduct" (cf. Heb. 3:13),20 for Christ "imposes duties upon us and challenges us to obedience."2
For Paul, "the promise of Abraham guarantees from the beginning the inner continuity of salvation history, from the patriarchs of Israel to the coming of Christ and the Church of Jews and Gentiles."22 Scripture presents salvation history not as a dichotomy between the new covenant and those of the Old Testament but rather as a "dynamic unity of the entire history." Indeed, from the perspective of eternity, there is only "one covenant," the "eternally valid" covenant of Abraham now perfectly fulfilled in Christ.23
http://www.readability.com/articles/t1pkicwo Covenantal theology
from this above link:
Covenantal theology is a distinctive approach to Catholic biblical theology stemming from the mid-twentieth century recovery of Patristic methods of interpreting Scripture by scholars such as Henri de Lubac. This recovery was given further impetus by Dei Verbum, the Second Vatican Council's "Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation", and consolidated in the section on ScriptureCatechism of the Catholic Church (nos. 101-141). These developments gave rise to an approach that emphasizes the "four senses" of Scripture within a framework that structures salvation history via the biblical covenants, in combination with the techniques of modern biblical scholarship.
and
Covenantal theology is distinctive in its emphasis of the following tenets:
- The biblical covenants (Edenic, Adamic, Noahite, Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic, and New or Messianic) are taken to be the chief structural framework for salvation history.
- The Abrahamic covenant (as distinct from the Mosaic) is taken to be the central Old Testament covenant that is fulfilled in the New Testament, in accordance with Pauline theology (Galatians 3:6-29).
- The Old and New Testaments are taken to be integrally related through the sequence of covenants, with prophetic fulfillment understood chiefly in terms of covenantal correspondence.
- Scripture is interpreted via the four senses, with an emphasis on describing the correspondence between covenants via the allegorical sense.
- Jesus' prophecy in the Olivet Discourse is understood to have been fulfilled by the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 AD.
- Old Testament prophecy of a restoration of Israel in which Jews and Gentiles are united is understood to have been fulfilled in the Church, cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church 781 drawing on Lumen Gentium 9.
- Jesus is understood to have inaugurated the Kingdom of God, which advances throughout history from the Ascension to the Last Judgment, cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church 669-670.
- The advance of the Kingdom of God throughout history is interpreted in terms of the Augustinian concepts of the City of God and the City of Man.
Covenantal theology is reflected, with varying emphases, in the works of contemporary authors such as Scott Hahn (1998, 1999), Timothy Gray (1998), Edward Sri (1999, 2005), Michael Barber (2001, 2005), Stephen Pimentel (2002, 2005, 2007), and Brant Pitre (2005, 2006).
see also http://www.keyway.ca/htm2004/20040715.htm for discussion on the word testament
see also http://www.keyway.ca/htm2004/20040715.htm for discussion on the word testament
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