Gift of New Covenant

Evangelizing Catholic Culture with Father David Tickerhoof

The Gift of the New Covenant Episode 40

The tremendous grace of the gift of the new covenant comes to us each and every day and Father David once again gives a clear and concise podcast on the topic, to renew our faith!

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The scripture in the Old Testament that is most quoted which declares God’s promises for his people is Jerimiah 30:31-34. Since it is the foundation that declares restoration for God’s people it is worth quoting: The days are coming says the Lord when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers the day I took them by the hand to lead them forth from the land of Egypt; for they broke my covenant, and I had to show myself their master, says the Lord. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts, says the Lord; I will be their God, and they shall be my people. “No longer will they have need to teach their friends and kinsmen how to know the Lord. All from least to greatest, shall know me, says the Lord, for I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more.” This wonderful promise is all about restoration! However, that is not where we are as a people at this present time of crisis, which is suffering in a pandemic, which shows no sign of conclusion. It seems there is more purification which is ahead. What will it take for the human community, and specifically the Christian community, to satisfy our Lord?

In the recent past we Catholic Christians have over-emphasized the Church as an institution, and narrowly presented a singular picture of the Sacraments as the only path to living in grace. There certainly is the truth about all this, but we just assume that devotions will somehow to pick up the rest. All awhile not really explaining to our people how this all works in the realm of the practical realities of daily life. Rarely, in our catechetical and homiletic presentations is the word Covenant mentioned. Viewing all this from a spiritual and biblical point of view it seems we need to go back to the experience of the Covenant and seek the elements of the meaning of the New Covenant as the heart of our Christian way of life. A solid balanced spirituality is not just built on praying devotions and prayers that other people have written. These things are good but clearly incomplete. Through and in the New Covenant we need to go to the heart of the matter in the personal experience of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Covenant of the New Creation, and the root of it all is a profound personal experience and relationship with Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior.

Before this recent pandemic broke into the life of the human community we experienced some concern that so many of our churches were closing or being amalgamated with other worshiping bodies. Our Catholic members who go to church did not seem to realize just how drastic this process is because it happened so gradually. Our Catholic communities in the United States, for the most part, are comprised of older people. I saw a statistic recently, and I hope it is not true, that seventy percent of our youth who have been raised in Catholic families leave the practice of their religion by the age of twenty-seven. I am also very aware that there are many young people who are experiencing a wonderful renewal of their Christian life. Still this pandemic has shut the churches down. Some people have not been to Mass for almost a year, and some have not seemed to have missed it. The lengthy process of this pandemic crisis has many people bewildered! Pope Francis mentioned recently in his new book “Let Us Dream”, the path of a better future, that the human community is going to come out of this extended crisis for the better or worse. We certainly hope for the best!

We find in Hebrews seven that Jesus became the guarantee of a better covenant. He is the mediator of the New Covenant. Jesus has obtained a more excellent ministry, just as he is the mediator of a better covenant. Jesus tells his disciples that he did not come to set aside the Old Covenant, but he came to fulfill it, and establish a new covenant of power and life. God’s goodness and graciousness is an expression of the Covenant. God is our Father because of the covenant relationship. The messenger of the Covenant whom you desire is like a refiner’s fire and he will purify his sons and daughters. As we are called by a transforming, grace we are called to offer a response of faith and love. Christ instituted the New Covenant in his blood and water which poured forth from his side. He has joined each member of his Body in an everlasting covenant. Therefore, the Church as the New Covenant People of God, and each member is alive and in the union in a covenant relationship with the glorified Christ.

This mysterious union is entitled the Paschal Mystery, a New and Everlasting Covenant, and the action of the Holy Spirit is at work continually in the People of the New Covenant. This mystical covenant between God and his people prepared the way for the new and everlasting Covenant in which the Son of God by becoming Incarnate and giving his life has united to himself in a certain way all humankind saved by him, thus preparing for “the wedding feast of the Lamb”. The entire Christian life becomes the mark of the spousal love of Christ and the Church. Christian marriage becomes a beautiful and endearing and efficacious sign, the sacrament of the Covenant of Christ and the Church. The spouses celebrate a true sacrament of the New Covenant.

May We Pray!

Dear Lord, the struggles and trials of Christian marriage at times become hard and challenging. We know you will not abandon us when these trials occur. For we have received the covenant grace of Christian marriage. The vision given to us by the grace of the Sacrament, an everlasting assurance that you will lead and guide us in our vocation within the New Covenant Church community. With this assurance, we pray for a special charism of renewal and refreshment of the espousal grace. When we hunger for a deeper love with you. May this special charism be given to us at times when we desire to pass from a good Christian marriage to a more mystical experience of the Divine union of love. We pray this prayer in the spousal relationship of Mary and Joseph, as we thirst for a deeper union with our God who is Eternal Love. Amen.

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