Lenten Reflection

Reflection for Mass by Jeanne McDermott                                                  March 21, 2013 

 

Readings of the Day:  Genesis 17:3-9

                                       Psalm 105:4-9

                                      John 8:51-59

 

In today’s readings, we hear God speaking to Abram about a new covenant he is establishing with Abraham, an everlasting pact to be Abram’s God and the God of his descendants after him.  Abram would even experience a name change to Abraham as father of a host of nations.  Covenant is a powerful word capturing the way God sees his relationship to his people. 

History is full of all kinds of ethnic groups and peoples developing relationships with other groups that changed the way they lived and operated.  They were oftentimes born out of necessity for survival, and were irrevocable, and unchangeable.  They blended families and tribes so that they became bigger, better, stronger, and unified.  What belonged to one tribe now belonged to the other as well.  These covenants expanded each tribe’s influence, resources, their ability to provide and to protect.

In Hebrew, the literal translation of the word covenant means:

A-cut-where-blood-flows. 

Looking at our faith history, God seems to take covenants and the shedding of blood very seriously:

God’s first covenant, made with Adam and Eve, was effected by the shedding of animal’s blood so that animal skins could be made to cover Adam and Eve’s nakedness as a result of sin.  Although viewed as a punishment in some respects, it was the foundation of the provision and covenant of salvation to come.

God’s covenant with Abraham was effected by the shedding of blood in a sacrifice, originally to be Abraham’s son, but in a merciful last moment substitution by God, a ram was sacrificed instead.

In American culture, our understanding of covenant is much more “civilized.”  Our bonds and alliances are not usually made with the shedding of blood, but usually are established through legal contracts officiated by lawyers.  Sometimes, in less formal settings such as the Sunday afternoon athletic field, a spit in the palms and a handshake will do. 

As a child, covenant history also had its impact on me and my family and how we conducted business in the neighborhood.  I remember playing outdoors during the summer all day with my four brothers, the neighborhood kids, and our next door neighbors the McBrides, who had four girls.  There were always minor neighborhood “wars” with disagreements over power, challenges of strength and declarations of who was the best.   My brothers and I were closest to our next door neighbors, the McBride girls, and one year we talked about how we could beat the other neighborhood kids by sticking together.  To ritualize this decision, we remembered our teachers telling us of traditions where covenants were made by cutting wrists and mingling blood together to form a covenant.  We thought our ritual wouldn’t be complete unless we did something similar.

However, making a slice into our flesh was a little off-putting, even to us mighty “warriors”, and sensibility won out.  We settled on pricking the finger of my brother Larry who was the oldest, and the finger of Kim, who was the toughest of the McBride girls.  They put their fingers together and mingled their two drops of blood, and a new entity was born.  We created a bigger, stronger, and more unified front.  It did a world of good for us.  Psychologically we knew we had the advantage.  Spiritually we knew we would not back down because too many others had our back.  We won dodge ball games, stick ball games and generally felt on top of the world.

God’s covenant with us may include these kinds of little life issues, but of course it is also about much greater things, and is about a much greater passion, commitment and love.  For thousands of years, God has continually pursued his commitment to us, even in the face of our failures to keep our part.  Our faith history is one of breaking our faith, and then being restored by a gracious and forgiving God who is slow to anger and abounding in mercy.  He continually sets us up for success, and finally, offers the promise of a new covenant that is unbreakable.  Unbreakable because it is made not between God and humans as the others were, but is made between God and himself, wrapped in the tent of Jesus’ flesh, tempted in all ways as we are, but able to remain sinless.

In today’s Gospel, we see Jesus firmly and freely establishing His divinity.  He doesn’t couch it in parables or metaphors, but states clearly that “before Abraham came to be, I AM.”  This incites the Jewish crowd to hearing what they believe is “blasphemy” and they become enraged to the point of trying to kill Jesus.  The Jewish crowd was most likely looking for a savior or messiah who would be a mighty warrior, visually appealing, a good political networker, and financially savvy.  Jesus was a faster and prayer, had no visual appeal of beauty, had someone else overseeing the money, and had no political agenda.

But he had an unquenchable love for people, for his heavenly Father, and for doing his Father’s will, even though it would cost him his life under extreme torture, mockery, and carrying the weight of the world’s sin on himself.  His unquenchable love would see him through becoming an everlasting covenant sealed by his own shed blood on the cross that would gain us entry into eternal life if we can only believe.  An everlasting covenant that would need no further sacrifice or shedding of blood, but would last through all eternity and open the way for us to be forever one with Christ, one with the Father, and one with the Holy Spirit.

During this Lenten season, and always, may we find joy in such unquenchable and unstoppable love, and allow it to saturate us so that we in turn, can love the Lord with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength.