October 3, 2005 

"Covenant"

In the Old Testament there is one word that sums up salvation.  It is called covenant.  This is extremely important to God when we see the history of the covenant.  When Jesus came along in the New Testament, He established a New Covenant.  We have the Old Covenant in the Old Testament, and we have the New Covenant in the New Testament.

Covenant is the one word in the Bible that summarizes everything we believe and live as Christians.  Jesus spoke those unforgettable words on the night before His Passion.  "This cup is the covenant of my blood which will shall be shed for you" (Lk 22:20).  I'd like you just to ponder that in your free time throughout the day.  "My blood that has cleansed you and will continue to cleanse."  We hear the priest say at the altar (and it's Jesus), "Do this in memory of Me." 

We want to continue that New Covenant for others as well as ourselves.  It's like once you receive a grace, once you receive another level of prayer, you want others to be there with you.  The Old Testament is filled with this covenant love and covenant encounters.  The Lord revealed Himself, first of all, to Abraham in the beginning of salvation history so that Abraham could become the father of many nations.  God is binding Abraham to Himself in the same way by using a covenant.  This is exactly what God said.  "I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between Me and you and your descendents after you for generations to come to be your God and the God of your descendents after you" (Gen 17:7). 

So we see that salvation in God's plan has to do with a living relationship with Him.  It is a love that God wants us to have in order to live with Him, to work with Him, and to spend our lives with Him.  It sounds like marriage.  Well, it is.  It is spiritual marriage.  It is transforming union.  God wants us to live with Him and to be fully and totally in His family. We hear God saying to Abraham, "Don't be afraid.  I am your shield, and I am a very good reward for you."  It's like He had to bait Abraham a little to get him to trust this new, deep relationship that God wanted.  This was really new to them at that time.  They had no idea God wanted this relationship, but God wanted it in the very beginning.  He had it in the very beginning with Adam and Eve.  They were full of life.  They were full of God, being with Him every day in that intimacy of the Garden.  Now He is establishing this again, and Abraham or any of us keep saying, "What's in it for me?"  So God says, "Covenant.  I will be your God.  You will be my people."  There is a lot in it for us.

There was a responsorial psalm during one of our Masses not too long ago that said, "The Lord is your guardian."  I pondered that all day.  "The Lord is your guardian."  He's our guardian.  He guards us in our comings and in our goings.  He keeps us from evil.  He's our shade.  He's our protection.  He's beside us, the psalm says.  He's at our right hand.  Jesus comes along and talks about covenant and says the same thing, but He says it even more strongly.  He said, "I am," this is God speaking, "I am who am."  I am God who is.  I am with you always!  Always - the great I Am, the great God is with us always.  "I am the God of the covenant."  So Abraham's joy in salvation was simply in having a God as his own.  It's beautiful.  You'll hear this throughout the psalms.  "Oh God, you are my God."    That's covenant.  We give ourselves totally to God but in covenant He gives Himself totally to us.  There is a mutual exchange but that's what happens in marriage, and this is what's happening in this beautiful spiritual covenant relationship with God. 

Covenant relationship is so important in the Old Testament that God repeated it over and over because it was broken. God is persistent, you know, the "hound of heaven."  He's not going to give up on us no matter what we do.  He's constantly pursuing us because He is so in love with us.  God said to Jeremiah, "But I am with you and I will save you.  You will be my people.  I will be your God" (Jer 30:11).    God is always reminding His people, "I will be your God.  I am here for you.  You'll never be alone.  You are my people.  I have called you by name.  You are mine."  This is wonderful.  So we're God's responsibility. 

There are a lot of different lights that you can ponder in some of these beautiful covenant promises of God.  He repeats Himself.  When we see God repeating Himself over and over, it means either we're not hearing Him or it is so special that He wants to be sure we get the message.  This theme is repeated continually throughout the Bible.

When I was still a new convert, I was in prayer and saying, "I feel like St. Augustine - ‘too late have I known you, too little have I loved you.'  I can never say to You what You say to me.  I can never say, ‘I have always loved You, God.'  But now I can say, ‘I always will.'"  That can be our response.  He can say, "I have always loved you and I always will." 

Excerpt from Mother Nadine's "New Covenant," Omaha, NE, 2004.