Do you know the difference between a contract and a covenant? A contract is an agreement between two parties. Think of getting your car repaired. I pay this amount and you do the service. If you don’t do the service, I don’t pay you. If I don’t pay you, you don’t do the service.
A covenant is more of an ebb and flow relationship. There’s a give and take. Often with surprises in that we don’t know what will be asked of or what we will receive. A healthy marriage is a covenant and not a contract.
God entered into a covenant with us, starting way back with Abraham. But sometimes we mistaken think that faith is a contract. That is, if I pray this then I expect God will do that. Wrong. It’s meant to be one of surprises and delight.
There’s a famous theologian named Fr. Karl Rahner. He died in 1984. He is considered one of the most influential theologian in the Catholic Church. He once wrote that there are 3 major periods in the history of the Catholic Church that altered the covenant that we have with God.
- The death and resurrection of Jesus. This changed everything about how anyone could be in relationship with God. That God loved us so much, that Jesus died and rose to prove this love.
- The events that we heard about in the first reading from Chapter 15 of Acts. Remember that Jesus was a Jew, Mary was a Jew, and the disciples were all Jews. For up to this point, followers of Jesus thought that any new followers had to enter in the old Jewish covenant. Which meant obeying all the Jewish laws and holidays (what to eat, how to worship, men get circumcised as a symbol of the covenant). But then Paul is ignited in faith to go preach to non-Jews (Gentiles they are called). So there’s big fight going on in the Church. The line in the first reading said, “There arose no little dissension and debate.” The argument is that baptism now replaces circumcision so that Gentiles should not be required to do all the Jewish things.
We only read part of chapter 15, the whole thing is called the Council of Jerusalem. It was a big fight and a mess. It gets resolved after Peter has a vision and supports Paul. And the covenant changed.
- Vatican II. This was the big change in the Church back in the 1960’s that opened up a different way of thinking about holiness and covenant. Instead of priests and nuns being the only holy ones, that we are all called to holiness. And the Mass changed from being in Latin to whatever language was used. We improved the rigidity of thinking there is only one way to do things. Back to a covenant relationship with the priest NOT facing away from the people at Mass and it is more a meal, or allowing more women and lay people to lead the Church.
So think of our parish. I call us a Vatican II parish. We are trying to be in a covenant with God.
And I would say that there are 3 important events in our history.
- When we merged two parishes into one, back in May of 2010. It was rocky for some, and exciting for some. We were the first in this area to merge. Now lots of parishes have and many more will in the coming years. All along we kept saying that have to trust the Holy Spirit working through the leadership in the Diocese to lead our merger.
- Which is going to be started within a year, is the building of a new structure. The road entry from Co Rd 9 was started this past week and will be done this following week. The first phase is a beautiful Social Hall that will have a large Gathering Space and a Hall with a big screen for our music. And is built to look to the future as we are expected to grow. So thanks to so many of you for contributing to this project. And to you who watch our Masses, stay tuned for we will eventually want you to be able to submit your offering to make this all happen.
- Is what Jesus talked about in the gospel. That we, as a community, trust that the Holy Spirit is there to guide us. Some of you trust the Spirit individually, but the time will come when we will do it as a community. And so we don’t worry about things so much, or we don’t place so many restrictions on people like the early Christians were doing before the Council of Jerusalem. Instead we trust that as Jesus proclaimed in the gospel that the Holy Spirit will teach us everything and remind us of all that Jesus told us.
So those are great, but I want to take it even further for all of you personally. I would say that the three biggest events in your life are:
- When you were born.
- When you figured out why (you were born).
- When you realized that God wants a covenant relationship with you . . . based on love, not a contract.