A New Covenant

Homily for Thursday in the Fifth Week of Lent

Abraham figures prominently in both readings for today’s Mass. In the reading from the Book of Genesis, we remember the promises to make him the “father of a host of nations.” When God made this promise, he literally cut a covenant with Abraham. Abraham never forgot this covenant and never lost his faith in God.

In the gospel we find Jesus still debating the Pharisees. In this section of the debate the person of Abraham looms large. Using the familiar “I AM,” Jesus once again reveals who he is. He maintains that he existed before Abraham, a proposition which the Pharisees are too blind to see.

A week from today, we will celebrate Holy Thursday, the day on which Jesus ratified a new covenant with us in the Eucharist. One of the most important parts of a covenant relationship is memory, remembering what God has done for us, remembering the great deeds that God has done before us, and looking forward to the great deeds which God will accomplish in our future. With God there is no past, no present, no future. God simply is – a fact that is explicit in the name revealed in the burning bush of the Book of Exodus. The Pharisees do recognize what Jesus is saying here, and it prompts them to pick up stones as it was their intention to stone him for blasphemy. The gospel relates that Jesus hid himself. This one statement from St. John’s Gospel is the reason that we used to cover the crucifix and any statues in our churches during the last two weeks of Lent known as Passiontide.

We are down to the last few days of Lent. It is important that we remember all that Jesus has done for us through his passion and death. That memory will lead us to the joyful celebration of the resurrection on Easter Sunday.