Before God’s covenant with Abraham, before his covenant with Moses, God made a covenant with his people through Noah today after the great flood: that is the covenant we hear about in our first reading from Genesis today. Through this covenant, God promises that he will not send another flood to destroy the earth again. The sign of that covenant is the rainbow that crosses the sky. Just as rainbows are signs of sunshine after the rain, the rainbow is a reminder to the people of God’s covenant with them. Later, God will make a more specific covenant with Abraham and his descendants. Then there will be covenant between Moses and Israel, entailing corresponding obligations: fidelity to God’s commandments and observance of the Sabbath. We live today under the final covenant between God and his people - the New Testament covenant between God and the world through which we receive our redemption and our salvation in the blood of his son on the cross. We celebrate this new covenant each time we gather around the altar of the Lord in Mass. We renew this covenant each time we celebrate the Eucharist, each time we reconcile with God and our brothers and sisters, each time we live out the Gospel in our lives. We are indeed a covenant people. May we never forget that.
No comments:
Post a Comment