Prayer for the unity of Christians. Particular memory of the Christian communities in Europe and the Americas

Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

This is the Gospel of the poor,
liberation for the imprisoned,
sight for the blind,
freedom for the oppressed.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Hebrews 8,6-13

As it is, he has been given a ministry as far superior as is the covenant of which he is the mediator, which is founded on better promises. If that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no room for a second one to replace it. And in fact God does find fault with them; he says: Look, the days are coming, the Lord declares, when I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel and the House of Judah, but not a covenant like the one I made with their ancestors, the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of Egypt, which covenant of mine they broke, and I too abandoned them, the Lord declares. No, this is the covenant I will make with the House of Israel, when those days have come, the Lord declares: In their minds I shall plant my laws writing them on their hearts. Then I shall be their God, and they shall be my people. There will be no further need for each to teach his neighbour, and each his brother, saying 'Learn to know the Lord!' No, they will all know me, from the least to the greatest, since I shall forgive their guilt and never more call their sins to mind. By speaking of a new covenant, he implies that the first one is old. And anything old and ageing is ready to disappear.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

We are inside a new covenant, of which the Lord Jesus has become the mediator. The covenant is often spoken of in the New Testament: God offers the patriarchs and the people of Israel a covenant of friendship that makes him unique among all peoples. This promise to Israel and the Jewish people is neither annulled nor revoked, but definitively renewed in Jesus and, through him, extended to all the peoples of the earth. Everyone can now have access to this special relationship of God with humanity. No one is any longer excluded from God's friendship. Quoting the Apostle Paul, John Paul II reminded a group of Jews of the 'never revoked' God's covenant with the Jewish people. In a way that is mysterious to us, a special relationship remains between God and Israel that has not been abolished by the covenant established in Jesus Christ with all humankind. In this sense, we must read the reference to the new covenant that came about in the death and resurrection of Jesus. It is manifested in a lofty manner every time the Eucharist is celebrated. The priest utters the very words of Jesus: "This is the cup of my blood for the new and everlasting covenant." The power and novelty of salvation brought about by the Lord's death and resurrection is inscribed within the entire history of salvation: from creation to the parousia. We accept the newness of the relationship with Jesus as an invitation to renewal and conversion, for the salvation of the world.