A Covenant People

Dominican Academy - June 2, 1991

We are all quite familiar with the beautiful words of St. Augustine: "You have made us for you. O God, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you."

In vain do men seek to satisfy that hunger and thirst for happiness in the things of this world. St. Augustine, before his conversion, went that route and ended up in sin and disgust.

But, how do we find God? How can we reach out to him for whom we were created? The answer is: we can't. But God can reach down to us, get intimately involved in our life, be a father and a friend to us. And that is what he did.

The most formal expression of God's involvement with man is the COVENANT he made with him.

Beginning with Abraham, then with Moses on Mt. Sinai, God made a SOLEMN COVENANT with man; a sort of mutual friendship, pact or agreement. The initiative for this could only come from God, but man had to accept God's offer freely. In making this covenant God was saying to his people: I will be your God and you will be my people. I will love and protect you, if only keep your part of the covenant and obey my commandments.

The First Reading of today's Mass relates how such a covenant was enacted by mutual consent of God and his people in the days of Moses.

Moses had just received from Yahweh the commandments men were to live by. He came down from Mt. Sinai, read the commandments to the people assembled, and told them: These are the terms of the Covenant God is proposing to you.

The people declared with one voice: All that the Lord has said, we will do." Thus they accepted the covenant of God, and the covenant was ratified and sealed by the offering of a sacrifice.

WHY A SACRIFICE?

Because a sacrifice was an expression of man's total submission to God.

When the Jews offered sacrifices of animals to God, they took something that belonged to them; something like animals and fruit that they could use as food to sustain their life, something that now signified the offering of their own life to God. They parted with something intimately linked with their own life, as a sign they were submitting their whole life to God. Thus did they seal their covenant with God.

SPRINKLING OF BLOOD

You may have noticed, also, in the first reading, how Moses took the blood of slain animals and sprinkled half of it on the altar (representing God) and the other half on the people, to signify the bond between God and his people.

A NEW COVENANT IN THE BLOOD OF CHRIST

When Jesus came, he enacted a new and everlasting covenant between God and man. By sinning, man had broken his covenant with God and lost his friendship with him. By shedding his blood on the cross, Jesus took away our sins and restored our friendship with God. The New Covenant was sealed in blood, the blood of Jesus shed on the cross. That is why we read in the letter to the Hebrews, "he is the Mediator of a new covenant."

We too, like the Israelites, are a covenant people. God has bound himself to us by a covenant of love. "If you are faithful to me, if you keep my commandments, I will be a father to you, and you shall be my children. I will protect you and feed you and lead you to everlasting life."

BAPTISM: OUR ENTRY INTO THE NEW COVENANT.

But each and everyone of us must accept this covenant. We did so when we were baptized. Like the Israelites at the foot of Mt. Sinai, we said to God, "All that the Lord has said, we will do." That is the meaning of our baptismal vows that we renew every year at the Easter Vigil.

THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS, RATIFICATION OF OUR COVENANT

Jesus also gave us a sacrifice, the sacrifice of the Mass, whereby we could ratify our commitment to God. Whenever we consecrate the cup of wine at Mass, the priest repeats these words of Jesus: "This is the cup of my blood, the blood of the new and everlasting covenant.

The new covenant. as well as the old, is sealed with blood, but this time it is the blood of Jesus Christ. Oh, what love, what sacrifice he made so that we could become once again a covenant people, the object of God's fatherly love! How we should love him in return! With what love we should offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass!

Every time we celebrate the Eucharist, especially today on the feast of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, we celebrate the sacrifice of the New Covenant in the blood of Christ and we ratify our covenant with God. So, Jesus said: "He who keeps my commandments is the one who loves me." (Jn 14:21)

Let us do so with joy this morning, consecrating our whole life to God, eager to do his will. Amen.

Sermons on the Eucharist Index