Sunday Reflections

From September to December of 1983, I studied Spanish at the Maryknoll Language Institute in Cochabamba, Bolivia.  It was a challenge, at thirty-two years of age to learn a new language, and even more so at sixty-six to learn Italian.  One of the things the Director of the Institute told us was that we must look upon our studies as something that will be forever, that we will speak Spanish every day of our lives, even though many had a commitment for only five years in the mission of their Diocese or Community. This will influence the way we confront the challenge of learning a new language – seeing it as something forever, and demanding one hundred per cent commitment.  

I thought of this when I read the gospel of today, as Jesus speaks to us about the relationship between a man and a woman.  This is best expressed by the biblical word ‘covenant’, a holy pact of faith and love between two people that is forever and one hundred per cent.  That is what the words of the Director of the Institute made me think of – a ‘covenant’ forever and one hundred per cent. 

In ancient times, God made a covenant with Abraham, and renewed it through Moses and the prophets.  The covenant was sealed with the blood of the lamb, offered in the place of Isaac, and then symbolically put on the doors of the homes of the Israelites in preparation for their liberation from slavery in Egypt.  We share in the new covenant, though the blood Jesus.  He is the Lamb of God, and through his death and resurrection, we are freed from slavery to sin.  The covenant is alive and well!

Jesus uses the image of the covenant to describe the relationship between a man and a woman, united in love before God.  “The two shall become one”.  I like to refer to couples as ‘married in Christ’, because their commitment is before God, blessed by God, and sustained by God.  But, like any vocation, we must continue to listen to God’s call.  Vocation means to be called.  Putting on the wedding rings, or the laying on of hands on the priest at his ordination, are not enough.  Each and every day we must listen to the Lord as He calls us to greater love and greater faithfulness, greater forgiveness and understanding, greater compassion and patience.  In our human condition, this is not easy, and we all know – from our own experience and that of those we know and love – that this is not an easy commitment.  There are many sources of temptation and confusion within and around us, that can easily get us off the track in our vocation, with painful consequences.   

Today we celebrate that Jesus has taken us to Himself in the new covenant.  We are His people; the flock He shepherds.  Our readings today, on the covenant, call us to renew and deepen that covenant daily, just as all couples married in Christ are called to renew and deepen their covenant daily.  God can only reveal Himself when we are faithful, and when we bear witness to him, giving ourselves forever and one hundred per cent.