Faith-Covenants-Treaties-Ark of the new Covenant

HOMILY SUNDAY 20 – C

Treaty Making and Covenant Living

(Jeremiah 38:1-2, 4-6, 8-10; Psalm 40; Hebrews 12:1-4; Luke 12:49-53)

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On the anniversary of Treaty # 10, there was a large gathering in Brochet, Manitoba, to celebrate the occasion.

That occasion raises the questions, “What is the greatest treaty of all?”

Our celebration today encourages us to pray for humble faith and to live as a people of the New Covenant.

A treaty is a special agreement that is more than a contract or an agreement. It involves two parties in a relationship, is binding, has a spiritual nature, and must be honoured and lived by both parties.

Our ancestors were involved in making treaty; we are all involved, all must be concerned. The Canadian process was to make treaties with inherent rights to medical care, education, land and resources, political involvement, etc. Two equal partners were involved, which one of the partners never seems to have appreciated. Our task is to celebrate the treaties and to educate ourselves more about them to see them honoured.

Another word for treaty is covenant. This is the word that best describes what the relationship that God has always wanted with God’s people. All that we said of treaties applies here, only the notion of covenant with God goes much deeper and is totally spiritual – like a marriage relationship.

We have a history of God making covenants with us that is as old as human history. The first treaty was with a couple, Adam and Eve, and they blew it. The next was with a family, Noah. After that came a treaty with Abraham and his tribe. Then it was the covenant with Moses on Mt. Sinai and the Ten Commandments, the gift of the Law. Finally, in the Promised Land, Joshua made a covenant with the people who again promised to live as a covenanted people.

We know that, like the treaties of our day, the covenant was never kept, never honoured by the people. So, in the end, God sent his Son Jesus as the ultimate covenant maker, the one who would bring about a radically new relationship with God through the sacrifice of his own life on the cross. It would be a covenant of forgiveness, mercy, compassion, unconditional love and intimacy with God as Abba, Father, or Daddy.

It is this new covenant that Jesus is speaking about in the gospel, the Fire that he came to bring and wants to burn. The baptism that he has to undergo is the cross, the way that God would establish this new covenant. This is what we call the Paschal Mystery – the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and the sending of his Spirit that call us into that new relationship with God. We are called to live that forgiveness, mercy, compassion, unconditional love and intimacy with God that Jesus lived on the cross. We are to be the people of the New Covenant. The author of Hebrews, in the second reading, reminds us to look to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for our sake endured the cross.

The Ark of the New Covenant was a beautiful work of art created by Quebec artisans for the International Eucharistic Congress in Quebec City in June 2008. Catholics from around the world gathered to celebrate the sign of that New Covenant, the gift of the Eucharist that Jesus left us. That ark travelled across Canada to all the different dioceses to prepare the country for that special event. With one of our diocesan staff as my driver, I completed a 10-day tour with the Ark of the New Covenant throughout our archdiocese – except for the fly-in communities.

The Ark is decorated with icons, holy pictures that tell the story of this New Covenant. The four larger icons are all about the Paschal Mystery. They include the Last Supper; the Crucifixion, the vigil of Mary at the foot of the cross, and the Resurrection of Jesus to new life.

The four smaller icons are the multiplication of the loaves, the wedding feast of Cana, the washing of feet, and the appearance of Jesus to the disciples on the road to Emmaus. All these icons speak of the Eucharist, the central prayer of the Church.

These icons also teach us about Mary as the Ark of the New Covenant. As the glory of God hovered over the original ark in the desert, so too the Holy Spirit over-shadowed Mary and she conceived Jesus within her and carried him for nine months. And as David danced before the ark when it returned to Jerusalem, asking how it was that the Ark of the Lord should come into his presence, so too Elizabeth asked why the Mother of her Lord should come to visit her at the Visitation.

Today’s readings can serve to remind us of that greatest of all treaties God made with God’s people at Calvary through the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus, his Son. This is not just a treaty, but also a covenant written not on stone, but in our hearts through the power of the Holy Spirit. We are in a treaty with God – a covenant relationship with our God. We are invited by that treaty to live as people of the New Covenant through forgiveness, reconciliation, love, worship and freedom from sin.

The Eucharist we celebrate now is like a wedding banquet with God celebrating the covenant made with us in Jesus, but also making present the love he showed us on the Cross. It commissions us to go out and live as people of the New Covenant, a treaty people.

Let us pray for humble faith, love one another and live as a People of the New Covenant.