29 March 2012

29 March 2012



"The Lord remembers his covenant for ever."


His ultimate plan and desire is to unite all of mankind in one family with he himself as Father over all.  That is why we should not be apathetic when we see God binding himself to Abraham.  We should think often on the blessings the LORD poured out upon him because they are the same blessings we share in through faith in Jesus.  As St. Paul says in Galatians: "Consequently, those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham who had faith."


It isn't that the LORD tried one thing with Abraham, another with Moses, another with David, and so on.  He has always been working to fulfill the same plan he has always had since the fall in the garden.  He is working to erase the divisions caused by sin.  He does it first through the Jewish people.  Then, through faith in Jesus, he gives the blessings of the covenant par excellence and extends them to the whole world.  This is why today's psalm tells us that he "remembers forever his covenant".


Yet the covenant with Abraham is still incomplete until Jesus comes.  In Abraham we learn faith and hope and we receive blessings from God.  Yet divisions of sin remain.  Abraham is still imperfect and can't overcome them on his own.  Even he can't fully realize the blessings God has for us because of the sin which binds him.  Therefore he rejoiced to see Jesus's day.  Abraham can see from his vantage point that Jesus truly is "I AM."  He knows that because of that truth he is the one and only man who can set right the division between God and man and therefore between man and his neighbor.  This division is already being reversed in the incarnation as the divine joins the human. It is finalized with the new covenant on the cross as Jesus puts sin to death in his flesh.  Thus is the veil in the temple torn from top to bottom.


Let us share in the faith of Abraham so that we can rejoice to see the day of the LORD.  Let
us look to the LORD in his strength, displayed most profoundly on the cross, and recall the 
wondrous deeds by which he sets us free.