Jeremiah — Chapter 31

The Lord hath appeared from afar to me. Yea I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore have I drawn thee, taking pity on thee. 'Charitate perpetua dilexi te' = everlasting love (hesed olam). Lapide: God's love is not contingent on Israel's response — it precedes and exceeds all human merit. The 'everlasting love' = the same eternal love with which He loves the Son (John 17:24), given to us in the Son.

A voice was heard on high of lamentation, of mourning, and weeping, of Rachel weeping for her children, and refusing to be comforted for them, because they are not. Matthew 2:18 applies this to the Slaughter of the Innocents by Herod. Lapide: the original historical reference is to Rachel weeping for the exiles who pass her tomb at Ramah on their way to Babylon; the deeper reference (fulfilled by Matthew) is to the Holy Innocents. Rachel represents the Church mourning her martyred children.

How long wilt thou be dissolute in deliciousness, O wandering daughter? for the Lord hath created a new thing upon the earth: A woman shall compass a man. The most debated verse in Jeremiah: 'a woman shall compass/surround a man' (femina circumdabit virum). Lapide's extensive treatment of six interpretations; the most important: (1) Jerome and most Fathers: the Incarnation — the Virgin Mary encompassing Christ in her womb; (2) the Church encompassing Christ through faith; (3) Israel returning to God; (4) a simple inversion of social order signifying restoration. Lapide sides with Jerome's Marian reading.

Behold the days come, saith the Lord, and I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Juda. The great New Covenant prophecy, quoted in Heb.8:8-12 and 10:16-17. Lapide: this is Jeremiah's greatest prophecy and his sole claim to the title 'Prophet of the New Testament.' The key elements: (1) not written on stone but on the heart; (2) all shall know God directly; (3) God will forgive sins and forget them. Applied to Baptism, the Eucharist, and the Holy Spirit's interior teaching.

But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, after those days, saith the Lord: I will give my law in their bowels, and I will write it in their heart: and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. The interiority of the New Covenant: the law written on the heart (lex cordis) rather than on stone tablets. Lapide: this is the fundamental distinction between Old and New Testaments — the external commandments of Sinai become the interior movements of grace. Applied to the theology of infused virtues (sanctifying grace, charity).