March 25/Fifth Thursday of Lent
He remembers forever his covenant which he made binding for a thousand generations –
Which he entered into with Abraham and by his oath to Isaac. ~ Ps 105.8-9
What does it mean to make a covenant? It means that we enter into a relationship based on mutual obligations and assurances. Such compacts, or contracts, are intended to be durable and reliable. In practice, they are about as durable and reliable as human nature — which certainly keeps lawyers busy! In life as in law, even the most well-meaning among us does not always live up to his or her obligations. Whether a trivial matter of forgetting to deliver on a commitment, or a major betrayal of trust that shatters a family, we all leave in our wake the flotsam and jetsam of broken promises. God alone keeps covenant. Thousands of years ago, as today’s reading from Genesis tells us, God laid out his promises to Abraham: abundant progeny, a permanent stake in the land, and most importantly, God’s berit olam, or “everlasting covenant.” No matter how many ways the descendants of Abraham have found to break faith with the Lord — and we are certainly numbered among those descendants — God does not break faith with them. In our own lives we forget our promises to him every day. Reflecting on God as “the unchanging presence, in whom all moves and changes,” poet Denise Levertov observes, “Lord, not you,/it is I who am absent.” We are too distracted to pray, too tired to go to church, too self-focused to respond to the needs of the world. How blessed we are that instead of forgetting us, in turn, God remembers forever his promise of eternal love, and waits for us to find our way back to him. May we use these final days of Lent to renew our covenant with God and, as our psalmist exhorts, to “seek his presence continually.”
Steadfast and eternal Lord, Grant me strength and devotion to keep my promises to you and to my neighbors today and every day. Amen.
For today’s reading, click here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/032521.cfm
To hear the Choir of Norwich Cathedral sing “The God of Abraham Praise,” click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzQMrjnAZXc
