Living in Covenant Relationship

  Introduction

We have reflected on numerous occasions over the course of the past three weeks on the central theme of “covenant” in living a spirituality of the Precious Blood.  We reflected on the themes of covenant, cross and reconciliation as a “spirituality”, that is, as a way of following Jesus.  It is an incarnated, down-to-earth spirituality, one which gives direction to our life, our life’s choices, and which gives an orientation to our ministry and pastoral activities. 

How do we define “covenant”

There is no concept in the Bible richer and more fundamental than covenant.  One author said decades ago, “it is the glue that holds biblical faith together.”  The original word berith has been translated in different ways.  Some translated it as testamentand was used to distinguish the sacred writings of the two eras, those of the Old and of the New Testament.  Others used the world word contract is used to describe the relationship between two parties.  But this word has too much of a legal tone to describe the divine-human relationship. Perhaps the word, which more closely captures what “covenant”, is all about is the word bonding.  The latter term captures both the bilateralism of the covenant and the affective unity, which arises from such a covenant relationship.  It seems to me important to capture both these aspects when speaking of covenant, for the God of the Hebrews was one who revealed himself to be personal, concerned, and engaged.  His initiative in making an insignificant, nondescript people his very own is what we term a covenant.

The Sinai Covenant: An Affective Bond (a bonding of the heart)

As we try to capture the biblical sense of covenant we must turn our attention to chapters 19-24 of the Book of Exodus.  These chapters deal with the Sinai covenant, which stands at the heart of Hebrew faith.  It was in light of their experience at Sinai that the Hebrews looked back upon their earlier history.  The history of the Hebrew people is meaningless without covenant.  This “bond” was the prism through which the history of the “elect of God” was viewed.

What happened at Sinai?  The event follows the escape of the Israelites from Egypt and their passage through the Red Sea. Chapters 19-24 of Exodus narrate for us how the people experienced God as both liberator and covenant partner.  We can speak of the Exodus-Sinai experience as forming a type of unity, for the biblical narrative presents a God who was both deliverer and partner, the Yahweh of the Exodus and of Sinai.  Let us read the most important verses of this narrative, as found in Exodus 24: 3-8:

When Moses came to the people and related all the words and ordinances of the Lord, they all answered with one voice, “We will do everything that the Lord has told us.”  Moses then wrote down all the words of the Lord and, rising early the next day, he erected at the foot of the mountain an altar and twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.  Then, having sent certain young men of the Israelites to offer holocausts and sacrifice young bulls as peace offerings to the Lord, Moses took half of the blood and put it in large bowl; the other half he splashed on the altar.  Taking the book of the covenant, he read it aloud to the people, who answered,  “All that the Lord has said, we will heed and do.”  Then he took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant, which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words of his."

Whatever the Sinai experience historically entailed, it was for Israel an organizing moment.  This group of no-people was constituted as “God’s special people”.  And they were very conscious of the fact that what constituted them as a people was not ethnicity or blood ties but rather they realized that they had been called together and favored by Yahweh, the God of the covenant. This disorderly band of peoples was now “the elect,” “sacred,” “my people.”  And in some way the wide chasm between a God of mystery and otherness and a very ordinary people had been bridged.

It is significant to point out that this covenant was sealed in the blood of the sacrifices.  Sacrifice is about coming into communion with God.  The blood signifies the seriousness of that communication, and reminds us that communion with God touches the very life that courses through us.  It is the blood of the sacrificial victim spilt on the altar (representing God) and sprinkled on the people, which ratifies the covenant.  It is the symbolic element, which bonds God and the people, sealing their relationship.

Israelite prayer also evolved around the story of the Exodus and of the Sinai Covenant.  This saving event was ritualized as recounted in Exodus 12: 24-27.  The mysterious deliverance from the sword of the angel of death and their miraculous crossing of the Red Sea are commemorated each year in the celebration of the Passover.  Then it was at the mountain of Sinai that events occurred that would transform this motley group into a people with an identity and a purpose: the covenant.

To summarize then: We have before us then a covenant relationship, initiated by God but one which is freely entered into on the basis of love.  It is a “two-way street,” with affective bonds binding each side.  We are called to live “bonded to God”.  But this bond also calls us to “bond to one another in community.”

The covenant theme permeates all of Scriptures and is a constant in the Old Testament.  The entire salvation history should be read in the light of the covenant:  of God’s call to relationship and our human response to the faithful love of God.  There are many ups and downs throughout the history of salvation and God raised up prophets from time to time to call people back to the covenant relationship from which they had strayed.

The New Covenant in Jesus’ Blood

The theme of the covenant carries over into the New Testament.  In fact we refer to the “new covenant.”  In contrast to the old Sinai covenant, which failed because Israel did not respond to God’s love, the new covenant will be successful.  It will be successful because it will be God and God alone who will put into the hearts of the people the power to respond in love.  This “grace” comes to us along with forgiveness of sins through faith in Jesus who died for love of us.  It is the death-resurrection of Christ that opens the era of the new covenant, marked by the presence of the Spirit, and serves as the prism through which the entire ministry of Jesus is viewed.

It is in the setting of the Last Supper that the new covenant emerges with the greatest clarity, “He did the same with the cup after eating, saying as he did so: ‘This cup is the new testament in my blood, which will be shed for you” (Luke 22:20).  As in Exodus, sacrifice accompanied the covenant (Ex 24:5).  The meal setting of the Eucharist evokes the reference to eating and drinking after the Sinai covenant.   The words of Jesus over the cup are a distinct echo of Moses’ words at the conclusion of the covenant ritual (Ex 24:8).  Yet Jesus’ qualifying “my” is important.  It is the new covenant that is inaugurated, the one spoken of by Jeremiah (31:31-34) which will be brought about by Christ’s death-resurrection, with the consequent outpouring of the Holy Spirit written on our hearts.  The sacrificial death is not that of animal victims but of God’s own son, who hands himself over in love.  Christ is now the new paschal lamb by the shedding of whose blood we are delivered from the Egypt of sinful bondage and become party to a new covenant of the Spirit written on the heart.

As is the case with the Sinai covenant, the Eucharist is to be perpetuated.  The rubric states it simply: “Do this in my memory” (anamnesis).  Each celebration of the Eucharist is a living link with that saving event, resulting in our direct participation in the paschal mystery, which is thus made new and brought to life in every age and time.

Significance of the covenant theme for today

One of the principle challenges facing us today is “connecting” our spirituality with everyday life in community and in ministry.

Covenant speaks strongly to the society in which we live.  It speaks to the isolation of individualism so rampant in our culture.  It speaks to the loneliness, anguish, and loss of self-esteem that comes from being excluded in our society, whether on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, class, ethnic origin or whatever.  It speaks to the breakdown in communication between husband and wife, parent and child, employer and employee, hierarchy and layperson.  It speaks to the hunger to belong, to be noticed and appreciated, to be listened to and to be cared for.  It bespeaks a vision of a genuinely inclusive human community, a reconciliation of what has been divided and fragmented in our lives.

In response to the cries of blood which we hear in today’s world, we as persons marked by the Blood of Christ, call upon the resources of the Precious Blood in giving our response.  The Blood of the Covenant is particularly significant here.

Implications of living as “men of the new covenant”

This brief summary of biblical covenant is important as a background for understanding our own commitment to live as a covenant people.  I have tried to indicate some of the important aspects of the covenant relationship: the initiative of God and our free response, the consequent affective bonding with God and with one another, and the need to renew the covenant in ritual. 

Now we turn our attention to some of the practical implications of being a people of the covenant. All baptized peoples participate in the covenant and form part of God’s people.  However,  we are called to especially witness to the covenant as persons who live under the banner of the Blood of Christ, that Blood which sealed the new and eternal covenant.  We are called to live the covenant and to witness to the covenant relationship with our everyday lives and in our ministries. How might we witness to the covenant in our everyday lives?

The first aspect that I would like to reflect on is that of bonding.  We’ve already seen that this is a good way of describing the basic relationship brought about by the covenant.  By the free initiative of God, we are invited to enter into a relationship with God in covenant.  Through our free response, God is bonded to us and we to God (“I will be your God and you will be my people.”).  So when we reflect on practical implications of living the covenant, we must first address issues involving the bonding which necessarily takes place.  And here we must talk about a double process:  bonding with God and bonding with one another!

Bonding with God

Through the covenant we are a people who “belong” to God.  We are bonded to God in a love relationship.  Our response to God’s invitation is our “yes” to live according to God’s law.  In its origins, law was anything but a burden.  It was a gift to Israel and it was the centerpiece of the covenant relationship.  In the New Testament, Christ substitutes for the law.  It is not conformity with a set of laws that effect sanctity but rather faith in Christ, who evokes a faith-filled response.  At the last Supper Jesus enjoined his disciples to be faithful to him, to be truly His friends, by “keeping his command” to love one another! We can see here echoes of the covenant commitment of the Old Testament covenant.

• For the children of the new covenant, to know God is to know Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life (Jn 14:5-10).  Thus we are called to know Christ, to grow in our knowledge of Him and love of Him.  Our prayer must be Christ-centered.  Our spirituality must drink deep of the gospel.  If to know Jesus is to know God, then  our principal source of knowledge has to be the word of God.  We are called to meditate the word of God, prayerfully reading the gospels, discerning the teaching and comportment of Jesus.  It is in applying the evangelical teaching to our daily life that growth in the covenant relationship happens.

·         We must then ask ourselves about our personal relationship to God in prayer.  Is the word of God a living reality for us?  Just as a married couple is called to grow in union with one another through dialogue, so we are called to deepen and strengthen our covenant relationship with God through our daily dialogue in prayer and in the meditation of sacred scriptures.  To neglect these important aspects in our daily lives is to spell the doom of our bonding with God.  For a relationship in which dialogue is absent soon dries up and withers away.  A couple in love creatively looks for ways and opportunities to be with the loved one.  Do we search for opportunities and create the conditions that will permit that intimate dialogue with God?

• We have already treated prayer in a previous reflection and later on in this retreat we will reflect more about the Eucharist, the greatest and central prayer of the Christian community.  It is enough to emphasize here the importance of prayer and the Eucharist to deepen our relationship to God and to one another, to effect this kind of bonding which is implicit in the covenant relationship.  We do well to meditate frequently on the scripture passage of John 15:1-8, where our union with Christ is compared to the vine and the branches.  Indeed it is the blood that runs through our veins, that is in communion with the Blood of Christ.  It is this essential bond with Christ, the source of love, that sustains and gives us strength and which makes possible our bonding together with others.

One of the most beautiful pages written in the history of spirituality is written by St. Augustine when, after such a long search, let’s himself be found by the Lord:

“Late have I lovedyou,

O Beauty ever ancient, ever new,

late have I loved you!

You were within me, but I was outside,

and it was there that I searched for you.

In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things

which you created.

You were with me, but I was not with you.

Created things kept me from you;

yet if they had not been in you

theywould not have been at all.

You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness.

You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled by blindness.

You breathed your fragrance on me;

I drew in breath and now I pant for you.

I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more.

You touched me, and I burned for your peace.

Give me, Lord, that which you ask of me

andthen ask of me whatever you like! ”

Just hearing these words seems to awaken in our hearts a yearning for the Loved One. That love which God first sowed in us, gives birth to a desire to be good, to be better persons, to finally become one day a true Christian, to become Jesus, leaving behind our senseless life.  Our deepest vocation is that of becoming one with the Lord, to join our name inseparably from Christ:  Barry-Jesus, Therese-Jesus, Paul-Jesus, Bridget-Jesus, etc.  It is nothing less than the desire for holiness which floods our heart thanks to the loving and attentive initiative of our God.

                       

Before reflecting in the following theme on bonding with one another, we need to examine this fundamental bond, that of God with us!  It is from this primary bonding with God that our call and capacity to bond with one another springs.  When asked by the Pharisees which is the greatest of all the commandments, Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your strength.”

Let us examine in prayer our relationship with God.  Is God my first love?  What idols creep into my life which try to replace this “first and primary love?”   How do I nurture this love-relationship with God and Christ?  Two handouts might help us in this reflection.

           

As possible prayer and reflection material this evening, I would like to share with you to prayers which I discovered during my thirty-day Ignatian Retreat a few years ago.  The first one is a prayer composed by Fr. Pedro Arrupe, SJ, a former Superior General of the Jesuits.  It is entitled, Being in Love.  I found it a very down-to-earth way of helping us to identify where our first love is. 

The second is a prayer by Blessed John Henry Newman and is entitled, One Alone.  I found it to be very useful for reflection and to help me discover where my true love lies.

None of us are guilty of out-and-out idolatry.  Many of us are guilty of allowing our decisions to be governed by many powers other than the one true God: desire for approval, addiction to work or other escapes from reality, greed for gain, need for control.  So powerful can these dictators become that we no longer recognize the voice of God, who speaks a different language than they do.  What might some of my “idols” be which distract me from the One True God and which demand my time and homage?

“Hear, O Israel!  The Lord is our God, the Lord alone! (Dt 6:4).  “Return, O Israel, to the Lord, your God!” (Hos 14:2)

Barry Fischer, C.PP.S.