HOMILY WEEK 02 04 – Year I
Living in an Intimate Covenant Relationship with God:
Memorial of St. Agnes
(Heb 7:25-8:6; Ps40; Mk 3:7-12)
******************************************************
A young man shared a dilemma with a friend. He was in love with two young women. One was a wonderful baker, and the other a wonderful poet, and he did not know which to marry. His friend commiserated with him, “You do have a problem – you don’t know whether to get married for batter or for verse!”
“Jesus is the mediator of a better covenant.”
Those words from the first reading invite us to enter into an ever more intimate covenant relationship with God the Father through Jesus.
Throughout salvation history, it seems God’s main concern was to have an intimate covenant relationship with his creatures, starting with a couple (Adam and Eve), then a family (Noah), followed by a tribe (Abraham), then with a nation (Moses).
There was a problem with the covenant with Moses, however. In the words of Hebrews, it was only a “sketch and a shadow of the heavenly one.” It was based on the Law, rigid, exacting, legalistic, a matter of reward and punishment: keeping the law one would be blessed – break it and one would be cursed. The Law could only name and punish sin, not transform it. It led to a sacrificial and externalist temple religion that did not change hearts and actually became a corrupt, oppressive religious system.
A shift occurred when God entered into a covenant with David – it was a covenant of unconditional love. No matter what David did or did not do, God would be with him. And David sinned – adultery and even murder – but he repented, experienced the unconditional love of God as forgiveness and healing, and that transformed him into the only true King Israel ever had. This is attested to by the fact that Jesus was never called a son of Moses or Elijah, but only the son of David.
In the Gospel, we see the new Israel, the Son of David, the new Temple in action. Teaching and healing, Jesus makes his way around Galilee as he begins his ministry. The Gospel takes pains to point out that people were coming to him from all around. They were supposed to be going to the Temple for sacrificial worship, and instead they were flocking around Jesus because there they found authoritative teaching, compassion and unconditional love – so unlike the Pharisees and scribes. No wonder the religious leaders were outraged and jealous, and plotted to destroy Jesus.
How fortunate we are, that now we can “approach God the Father through Jesus” as Hebrews states. But to live out an intimate covenant relationship with God is a challenge, as is entering into an intimate relationship with anyone. It demands humility, vulnerability and honesty, and that can be frightening for some. In fact, all too often in the past, the Church has been more like the Mosaic sacrificial, rigid, judging and demanding religion, than what Jesus showed us and asks of us.
One Indigenous person who had, after being anointed, miraculously recovered of injuries from an accident he was not expected to survive, shared with me although he became very religious because of that recovery, eventually he left the church because he felt he could never live up to its demands. Thinking missing mass on Sunday meant going to hell if he died on Monday, he decided that the Catholic religion was not for him and joined another Christian denomination. How sad the very rules the Church put in place to help people ended up driving him away.
One of our venerable elder Oblate, the late Fr. Valentine, Fix shared this question with an Oblate brother who complained about his brother Oblates and laity not spending more time in silent adoration after a celebration of the Eucharist: “Brother, which tabernacle does Jesus enter at communion?” That question helped this brother to be less judgmental of and upset by his brothers and sisters who were enjoying fellowship with each other after a celebration of the Eucharist.
St Agnes
We are given someone to emulate today,St. Agnes, who at a very young age died for her faith. She was likely born in the early years of the 4th century, and was martyred at the age of 12 during a Roman persecution. She is a symbol of virginal innocence and has been pictured with a lamb as a symbol of this innocence since the Middle Ages. She can also teach us a lot about the values of purity and chastity, so overshadowed by unbridled lust and sexuality in our present-day society. Here is what the Office of Readings writes about her: “A new kind of martyrdom! Too young to be punished, yet old enough for a martyr’s crown; unfitted for the contest, yet effortless in victory, she shows herself a master in valour despite the handicap of youth.
The Eucharist is a bit like the Temple worship – a foretaste of what is to come – a heavenly banquet where we will see God face to face. In the meantime, may our celebration strengthen our faith in Jesus, the Son of God, Son of David. May it help us come to the Father through him, and live out an intimate covenant relationship with the Father as Jesus did, as did St. Agnes.
