22 January 2027 · Latin Rite
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“And he appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles, to be with him, and to be sent out to proclaim the message, and to have authority to cast out demons.” Mark 3:14–15
Hebrews quotes Jeremiah's great promise of a new covenant: “I will put my laws in their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people… For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” The old covenant was written on stone; the new is written by the Spirit on hearts. Christ is its mediator, and forgiveness is its foundation.
Mark shows Jesus forming the people of this new covenant. He goes up the mountain, as Moses did at Sinai, and “called to him those whom he wanted”. He appoints twelve, like the twelve tribes of Israel, for two purposes: “to be with him, and to be sent out”. First friendship, then mission. The list includes fishermen, a tax collector, a zealot and Judas who betrayed him: Jesus calls ordinary, mixed and imperfect people. Every Christian vocation has the same two movements: being with Jesus in prayer, and being sent by him to others.
Theme: “To be with him, and to be sent out.”
The new covenant written on hearts; the Twelve called and sent.
“No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the LORD,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.” Jeremiah 31:34
“This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Hebrews 8:10
Apply: Memorise one commandment of love this week.
“And Moses wrote down all the words of the LORD. He rose early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and set up twelve pillars, corresponding to the twelve tribes of Israel.” Exodus 24:4
“And he appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles, to be with him, and to be sent out to proclaim the message, and to have authority to cast out demons.” Mark 3:14–15
Apply: Give Jesus fifteen quiet minutes today.
“Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will kiss each other.” Psalm 85:10
“For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”” Hebrews 8:12
Apply: Show mercy to someone who wronged you.
First with him, then sent by him.
The new covenant is mercy written on hearts.
Take-home resolution: Pray daily before you serve this week.
Dear friends, Hebrews recalls God's promise through Jeremiah: I will put my laws in their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people (Hebrews 8:10). The new covenant is written not on stone but on hearts, and it rests on forgiveness: I will remember their sins no more.
In the Gospel Jesus goes up the mountain, like Moses at Sinai, and calls to him those whom he wanted. He appoints twelve, a new Israel.
Why does he call them? To be with him, and to be sent out to proclaim the message (Mark 3:14). First friendship, then mission. The order matters.
The list is surprising: fishermen, a tax collector, a zealot, even Judas. Jesus calls ordinary, imperfect people. He calls you too: first to be with him in prayer, then to go out in his name. Amen.
Children, Jesus chose twelve friends. First they stayed with him, then he sent them to help people. Spend time with Jesus, then go and be kind!
Lord Jesus, mediator of the new covenant, you called the Twelve to be with you and to be sent out. Write your law on my heart, keep me close to you, and send me to bring your mercy to others. Amen.
Both readings speak of a new beginning that grows out of Israel's own story. Hebrews quotes Jeremiah's promise of a covenant written on the heart. Mark shows Jesus on a mountain, making twelve men the start of a renewed Israel. The psalm between them sings what such a covenant looks like: “Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet” (Psalm 85:10).
Setting.
Since chapter 7 Hebrews has been arguing that Jesus is a high priest of a new kind. Chapter 8 turns from the priest to the covenant he serves. To make the point the author quotes Jeremiah 31:31–34 in full, the longest Old Testament quotation in the New Testament. Jeremiah's words belong to the time of the fall of Jerusalem (587 BC), when the people had lost nearly everything that seemed to hold the covenant up.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“I will put my laws in their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (8:10)
The law does not disappear. It changes place, from tablets of stone to the human heart. The last line is the oldest covenant promise of all, now kept from within.
“For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” (8:12)
Forgiveness is the foundation on which all of this stands. That is why Hebrews goes on at once to speak of Christ's blood. A note on the text: v. 9 follows the Greek Old Testament (“I had no concern for them”), while the Hebrew of Jeremiah 31:32 reads “though I was their husband”.
“In speaking of “a new covenant,” he has made the first one obsolete.” (8:13)
Read this sentence with care. See the question below.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism quotes these very words when it describes the New Law as the interior law of charity (CCC 1965), and adds St Thomas Aquinas's definition: the New Law is the grace of the Holy Spirit given to the faithful through faith in Christ (CCC 1966). St Augustine builds much of his work On the Spirit and the Letter on this oracle of Jeremiah: what the law commanded from outside, the Spirit gives from within (in substance). At every Mass the priest speaks of “the new and eternal covenant” over the chalice.
Setting.
Mark has been showing growing crowds and growing opposition from some leaders (3:6–12). Now Jesus leaves the crowd and goes up the mountain. In the Bible a mountain is a place of meeting with God, and readers would remember Sinai, where the twelve tribes received the covenant. Luke adds that Jesus spent the night before this choice in prayer (Luke 6:12).
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“He went up the mountain and called to him those whom he wanted, and they came to him.” (3:13)
The initiative is entirely his. Nothing is said of their merits. The whole of vocation lies in this one verse: he wants, he calls, they come.
“And he appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles, to be with him, and to be sent out to proclaim the message,” (3:14)
“To be with him” comes first. Those who are sent have nothing to carry except what they received by staying with him. The order still holds for every priest, catechist and parent.
“and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.” (3:19)
Every Gospel list of the Twelve puts Peter first and Judas last. The Church has never hidden this. Being chosen by Jesus is a gift, and it can be refused.
How the Church reads it.
The Second Vatican Council opens its teaching on the bishops with this passage: the Lord, having prayed to the Father, called to himself those he desired and appointed twelve (Lumen Gentium 19). The Catechism sees in the Twelve the Lord's emissaries, and in their sending the continuation of his own mission from the Father (CCC 858). With Peter at their head they are the foundation stones of the new Jerusalem (CCC 765).
If the first covenant is “obsolete”, has God finished with the Jewish people?
No. Hebrews is comparing the old priesthood and sacrifices with the one sacrifice of Christ. It is not speaking about God's faithfulness to Israel. St Paul says of Israel: “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29). The Church teaches that the Old Covenant has never been revoked (CCC 121; see Nostra Aetate 4). Jeremiah's promise itself was made first to “the house of Israel and … the house of Judah”, and the first Christians were Jews who saw it fulfilled in Jesus.