Ratifying the Covenant

Saint Anne Church - June 16-17, 1979

Beautiful and profound word of St. Augustine: "You have made us for yourself O God, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you."

We all yearn for God, down deep in our heart, whether we realize it or not. Precisely because our heart was created for him. We were created in his image and likeness. There is something in us which gives us a kinship with God. Is it surprising then that we should have in our heart that deep and unquenchable thirst for God? A thirst to be united with him? This union with God is what religion is all about.

In vain do men seek to satisfy this hunger and thirst for happiness in the things of this world. St. Augustine, before his conversion, went that route and ended in Sin and disgust. But he also saw the beauty of the world God had made and interrogated the creatures of God: sun, moon, stars, flowers and trees, the sea and the mountains, etc., and in his heart Augustine heard them cry out with a loud voice: "We are not the God whom you seek; look above us. He made us." (Confessions. Bk. 10)

But how can we reach for God to be with him? The answer is we can't. God is beyond our reach. But God can reach down to us, get intimately involved in our own life, be a father and a friend to us. And that is exactly what he did.

As far back as the Old Testament beginning with Noah, then with Abraham, finally with Moses on Mt. Sinai, God made a covenant with men. This divine covenant was a sort of mutual friendship pact or agreement. The initiative for this could come from God alone, but man had to accept God's offer freely.

The first reading of today's Mass relates how such a covenant was made by mutual agreement of God and his people in the days of Moses. Moses has just received from Yahweh on Mt. Sinai, the commandments men must live by. Moses comes down the mountain and reads the commandments to the people assembled, and tells them that these are the terms or conditions of the covenant God is proposing to them. The people, with one voice, declare: "All that the Lord has said, we will do it." Finally, the proposed and accepted covenant is ratified, sealed, by the offering of a sacrifice.

WHY A SACRIFICE?

When the Jews offered sacrifices of animals to God, they took something that belonged to them; something, furthermore, like meat or fruits of the land, that was intimately associated with their own life: food, to signify symbolically their total submission to God. We submit our whole life to God because we belong to him, who made us. When we offer a sacrifice, we recognize God's dominion over us and we accept, we pledge to keep his commands, to serve him, our Lord and Master.

SPRINKLING OF BLOOD

You noticed in the 1st reading, how Moses took the blood of the slain animals. He sprinkled half of it on the altar (representing God), and the other half on the people. This signified the union of God and his people, both sharing in the blood of the same victim. Thus was the covenant between God and his people sealed in the days of Moses.

When Jesus came, he established 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 dying on the cross, Jesus took away our sins and restored man to the friendship with God.

But each and everyone of us must for our part accept this covenant with God and promise to keep the new law of Christ, which is the law of love.

Jesus gave us a sacrifice whereby we would ratify our commitment to God, our part in the Covenant: it is the sacrifice of the Mass. When we consecrate the cup of wine at mass, what does the priest say? He repeats the words Jesus said at the Last Supper: "This is (the cup of) my blood, the blood of the (new) covenant," as we read in today's Gospel.

We ratify in every mass, therefore, our surrender to God, our commitment to live by his Covenant, and as a sign of this we offer a sacrifice: by this sacrifice we mean to proclaim our total dependence on God our Creator, to proclaim that he is our Lord and Master, and that we want to keep his commandments.

Only if we really mean to recognize in our life that God is our Lord and Master and that we want to serve him and him alone only then will our Mass be what it is intended by Jesus to be: a renewal of our Covenant with God in the blood of Christ. Jesus gave his life to restore us to God's friendship. We must be willing to submit to God, accept the Gospel as our rule of life, to enter into God's Covenant and make it our own.

Every time we offer the bread and wine, at the offertory of the Mass, we should remember that they represent us, just as the Israelites brought animals to the altar of sacrifice. When we offer the bread and wine let us offer ourselves to God, our whole life: our work, our sufferings, our joys, our tribulations, everything that is a part of our life. We offer it to God in humble submission to him, our Lord and Master. Like the Jewish people we say to God: "All that you have said, we shall do." Amen.

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