In today’s first reading, when God spoke to Abraham he said: “My covenant with you is this: you are to become the father of a host of nations.” Towards the end of the reading, God again says to Abraham: “On your part, you and your descendants after you must keep my covenant throughout the ages.”
One of the images that quickly come to mind when we think of “covenant” is “contract.” But this word does not really capture the full meaning of what a covenant really is. A contract has too many businesslike connotations to truly capture the essence of what making a covenant does to a person.
When God covenants himself to Abraham, Moses or even to you and me through Jesus, his Son, he gives himself to us in a unique and permanent way. Once a covenant is made, a person cannot withdraw from it as they have irrevocably given themselves over to another person. Both Baptism and Ordination are covenantal type agreements that cannot be undone once made.
The covenant that God makes with us is a covenant of love. He gives himself to us in order to draw us into the eternal relationship within the Trinity. The Scriptures are records of God’s self-giving that culminates in the definitive revelation of His love in the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus. All that Jesus says and does on earth is an invitation to enter into a life-giving covenant with the God who created us in the first place. What will our response be to this offer?
Let us ask the Holy Spirit to open our mind more fully to the truth of the beauty of the relationship that God the Father invites us to enter into through His Son Jesus Christ and to grant us the grace to fully give ourselves to him in love.
