God and Covenant

A covenant is more than a simple contract. Where a contract is simply the exchange of goods for services, a covenant is the joining of two separate lives into one. When a covenant is formed between two people, they truly become one body - each is flesh of the other's flesh, and bone of the other's bone, each freely chooses to permanently join oneself to the other. Covenants create living relationships. Covenants create families.


When Adam and Eve were created, they were children of God, created in the image and likeness of God. Likewise, they were joined to each other in covenantal union, flesh of one flesh, and bone of one bone. All were one family. However, through sin, Adam and Eve died to God. Through their covenantal choice, the patrimony of life was taken from all of their descendants as well - all died to Him. The children of God were no more.


God remedied this by creating a new family, the Chosen People. God chose the People by establishing a covenant with Abraham, a descendant of Adam.Through the free choice of Abraham, the People chose to establish a covenant with God. This establishment of the Old Covenant, which gave the Chosen People their title and their role in salvation history, also made Abraham and his descendants, who are the Chosen People, the family, the children, of the living God. By establishing His family on earth, God could bring His only begotten Son into the history of creation, making Him, through them, truly part of His family on earth.


God chose Mary to bear His Son. Mary, freely chose to bear the Son of God. This decision brought the salvational covenant plan of the Father to its fullness. By the marriage covenant established between Mary and the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ became the First-Born of the family of Man. As the Bridegroom who is the only Son of the Father, He marries the Bride without spot or wrinkle, the Church, who thereby becomes the household of the living God, joined as One Body with Jesus Christ. Through the extended family formed by this marriage, which is the New Covenant, all mankind is brought to salvation. All who are baptized into the death of Jesus Christ are literally raised up and made part of the One Body of Jesus Christ, who is the Bride, the Church.


The history of salvation is thus a history of God's family, for God acts only through family relationships. God saves all mankind by extending to every one of us the invitation to marry into His family. By this marriage, which we call baptism, we are washed, sealed, made clean and pure, and are thereby truly made children of the living God. When we die to Him through mortal sin, His sacraments of forgiveness and grace, administered by and through the Bride who is His Body, anoint us and bring us back to life within the Body of Christ. Just as the prodigal son was adorned upon his return by the father, and just as Jesus ministered to those in need before His crucifixion, so He ministers to those in need after His crucifixion, through His Body, through His sacraments. Every sacrament is intended to constantly strengthen, purify, and re-purify us, raising the dead to life through baptism and confession, strengthening us through confirmation, healing us through the anointing of the sick, ministering to us through Holy Orders, making us fruitful through marriage, and feeding us with His own Body in the Eucharist so that we always be one Body with Him. All who are of the Body of Christ are our sisters and brothers, they are our family. Whether they be here present, undergoing purification so that they may enter heaven, or in heaven, each member of the family is alive in Christ, and is honored in Christ, for he who honors a member of the covenant honors Jesus Christ, who established the New Covenant and who completes the family of God.