THURSDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF LENT
Gn 17: 3-9; Ps 105: 4-9; Jn 8: 51-59
INVITED INTO A COVENANTAL RELATIONSHIP
The liturgy of the day highlights that our God is a God of the covenant. According to the narrative, God makes a promise to Abraham, in a way rewarding his steadfast faith. The promise permeates through many generations of his offsprings. The dialogue between them is so intimate and personal. God is seen as a subject instead of object, as was the regular norm of the Jewish religion. For man, to be in a covenantal relationship with God means that man “walks with God” and is involved with God as his friend.
Therefore, the covenant between subjects is as serious as marriage in today’s context. The Old Testament makes us realize that our God is a God of covenantal relationship. This would have remained so in an abstract domain if not for Lord Jesus Christ the visible face of the invisible God. The same covenant seen across the pages of the Old Testament holds wholly Good and tangible in the person of Jesus Himself. To experience how Lord Jesus is indeed the God of covenantal relationship, we must enter into a sincere friendship with him and savour this intimacy in our interior life. He is more eager to relate with us than we can ever desire to relate with Him. All that we require is a humble disposal of our very self at his feet like Abraham fell on his face in His presence.
God still speaks. Perhaps not like how it is portrayed in a dialogue form between God and Abraham but in much more profound and personal way. The voice is from within us in the silence of our thoughts and sometimes through other means that He desires to communicate with us. A covenant is an open invitation for us to unite with God in the person of Christ Jesus. God never forces us because He has given us the gift of free will and personal discretion. He always waits for us to respond to His Call. How serious are we in responding to his call and to accept this invitation which is already at hand?
Response: The Lord remembers his covenant forever.
Copyright ©2023 ©Springs of Living Water http://springs.carmelmedia.in