Today’s readings again speak of the new covenant that God established through Jesus. In the reading from Jeremiah, we hear of the new covenant that God said He would establish with His people; a covenant not written on stone tablets and obeyed strictly out of obedience, but one written on people’s hearts and obeyed out of love and trust...even in the face of adversity. In the psalm, we hear the writer’s plea for a clean heart, one that is prepared to receive God’s new covenant…I imagine it as a white board that the psalmist is asking God to wipe clean prior to writing His covenant on it. Jesus gave us the ultimate example, as both the Gospel reading and the letter to the Hebrews describe. In the Gospel, Jesus tells us that he was “troubled”. He knew what lay ahead of Him, and what sane person wouldn’t have been afraid? Yet, He trusted that the Father’s plan for Him was the correct one; the one that would bring life from death not only for Himself, but for all of us. He used the example of a grain of wheat needing to fall to the earth and die to be transformed into something more. We, too, need to die to be transformed. We need to die to our sins, our bad habits, our self-centeredness, our pride, our selfishness. Lent is the time to do that; Easter is two weeks away. There is still time to open ourselves to God’s mercy and grace, to allow Him to help us wipe the board clean, and to allow Him to write His new covenant on our hearts.