We are a Covenant People

Deacon Kevin Gingras

Feb 21, 2021, 1st Sunday of Lent

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/022121.cfm

We are a covenant people.  The covenant we heard about in our first reading from Noah changes things as covenants often do.  It came at a time right after the world was cleansed through a flood, a global baptism if you will.  A little earlier in Genesis 6:5, we read:

the LORD saw how great the wickedness of human beings was on earth, and how every desire that their heart conceived was always nothing but evil

This flood lasted for 40 days and was necessary to cleanse the world of its evil ways.  This covenant’s promise from God is “that never again shall all bodily creatures be destroyed by the waters of a flood”.  That promise is welcome assurance these days, the way things are going.  If not for that promise of God every time it started to rain, I would get a bit apprehensive.

God has made other covenants with us as well.  The Abrahamic covenant from Genesis 15 where God promised Abraham and Sarah descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky.

There is the Mosaic covenant from Exodus 19 where the Israelites who also passed through waters of the Red Sea to salvation; another form of baptism; are given the 10 commandments and the laws of God.  When Moses received the 10 stone tablets of God’s commandments he was on Mt. Sinai for 40 days.

In today’s Gospel, we hear of the start of a new, Messianic covenant as Jesus goes into the desert for 40 days.  This was the covenant the prophets foretold of, a Messiah, Jesus Christ will be the fulfillment of this covenant.

In today’s Gospel, we hear Jesus was tempted by Satan after his desert wanderings.  We must remember that Jesus was 100% human as well as 100% divine (throw away your math major on this one, this one takes faith) so he was tired, hungry, and thirsty when Satan approached him.  Satan may have been thinking that this would be one of his only chances to have a shot at corrupting Jesus.  Jesus passes these tests with Satan and the angels minister to him.

This is an important moment in our salvation.  Imagine if Jesus failed that temptation what things would be like today.  He had to pass - he was the “New Adam”, he came to undo the closing of paradise that was caused by the sin of disobedience of Adam and Eve.  God had established his first covenant with Adam and Eve.  The first covenant to be broken.

Jesus, the New Adam, along with his mother Mary, the New Eve had their work cut out for them, it wouldn’t be easy but fortunately, as Paul Harvey used to say, we know the rest of that story.

Our covenant now is a covenant of salvation, not an earthly salvation but a Heavenly one instead.  A covenant that lasts for eternity.  It’s a covenant marked by the body and blood, marked by the very Eucharist which we are here to celebrate today especially when the priest will change mere bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ.  These words from Matthew may sound familiar (I hope so anyway):

Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins.

Our part in holding up this Eucharistic covenant, yes, we play an active role in this, is to try our best to stay worthy to receive it.  It’s not a magic pill that we just show up, receive and walk away, all saved, I wish it worked that way but it doesn’t.  We hear about that in the first letter to the Corinthians:

Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup.

We must fully understand and realize what Jesus’ death and suffering mean for us, for me, for you, individually, you yourself must grasp what he has done for you in this covenant.  To not try and do this is a sin against the Lord himself. 

What better time than lent to do this.  To examine ourselves.  We fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, we abstain from meat/flesh on Fridays but why?  To remember that Jesus sacrificed himself, his very own flesh on Good Friday.  We fast to remember and focus more on our spiritual dimension, our heavenly dimension, and to put aside our earthly dimension just for a bit. Sometimes it’s hard, sometimes my earthly body tells me when I’m fasting: “Hey big guy, you haven’t fed me in a bit, how about a nice big sandwich?”.  It takes practice and persistence to master this, keep at it!

We should also focus on Metanoia - meaning changing our lives to focus on penance and conversion, making ourselves right with the Lord.  Fast for Metanoia!

Confess your sins to a priest, do it at least once this lent, the Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us to confess our serious sins at least once a year.  What better time than now to cleanse ourselves, like our baptismal waters cleansed us so many years ago.  Make ourselves worthy to properly receive Jesus in the Eucharist so that, as  Saint Pope John Paul II said:

"United with the angels and saints of the heavenly Church, let us adore the most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist. Prostrate, we adore this great mystery that contains God’s new and definitive covenant with humankind in Christ."