FAITH IN GOD’S WORD, COVENANT
Introduction
Our communion with God, our salvation, depends on faith. God makes to us his offer of a covenant; we have to trust the word of God. Abraham believed God’s word and his faith changed the destiny of himself (hence the new name) and of his people. Many Jews did not believe and cut themselves off from their ancestor and from God’s new people. God speaks to us his Word, who is a person: Jesus Christ. If we believe in him, we become the new people of the new covenant by baptism, and the Promised Land will be ours.
Reading: Genesis 17:3-9
When Abram prostrated himself, God spoke to him:
“My covenant with you is this:
you are to become the father of a host of nations.
No longer shall you be called Abram;
your name shall be Abraham,
for I am making you the father of a host of nations.
I will render you exceedingly fertile;
I will make nations of you;
kings shall stem from you.
I will maintain my covenant with you
and your descendants after you
throughout the ages as an everlasting pact,
to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.
I will give to you
and to your descendants after you
the land in which you are now staying,
the whole land of Canaan, as a permanent possession;
and I will be their God.”
God also said to Abraham:
“On your part, you and your descendants after you
must keep my covenant throughout the ages.”
Responsorial Psalm 105:4-5, 6-7, 8-9
R. (8a) The Lord remembers his covenant forever.
Look to the LORD in his strength;
seek to serve him constantly.
Recall the wondrous deeds that he has wrought,
his portents, and the judgments he has uttered.
R. The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.
You descendants of Abraham, his servants,
sons of Jacob, his chosen ones!
He, the LORD, is our God;
throughout the earth his judgments prevail.
R. The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.
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.
R. The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.
Verse before the Gospel: Ps 95:8
If today you hear his voice,
harden not your hearts.
Gospel: John 8:51-59
Jesus said to the Jews:
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever keeps my word will never see death.”
So the Jews said to him,
“Now we are sure that you are possessed.
Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say,
‘Whoever keeps my word will never taste death.’
Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died?
Or the prophets, who died?
Who do you make yourself out to be?”
Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is worth nothing;
but it is my Father who glorifies me,
of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’
You do not know him, but I know him.
And if I should say that I do not know him,
I would be like you a liar.
But I do know him and I keep his word.
Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day;
he saw it and was glad.”
So the Jews said to him,
“You are not yet fifty years old and you have seen Abraham?”
Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you,
before Abraham came to be, I AM.”
So they picked up stones to throw at him;
but Jesus hid and went out of the temple area.
Commentary:
There is something prosaic and shallow about the listeners of Jesus. They are very literal people, paralyzed by the immediacy of what is before their physical eyes. They simply cannot see beyond the physicality of Jesus into the immense possibilities of Christ. Thus, they confuse the meaning of death or age that Jesus speaks of. No wonder they pick up stones, for they are as sterile as the stones in their hands. In total contrast to these people is Abraham in today’s first reading. Abraham has the capacity to imagine, see beyond the literalness and limitations of the physical world and his own physical self into the possibilities of God. In other words, he walks easy on the road of faith. He understands the language of God, and God finds it easy to converse with him.
How would it be between God and me? Do we talk and hear the same language?
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The tension is palpable. The dialogue with the Jews today ends in a confrontation; they were raining stones over Christ, the controversy exasperates, concentrating around two poles. On the one hand, Jesus says twice that whoever keeps his word will not see death; presenting himself overcoming supreme evil and the doorway to an eternity of divine communion. On the other hand, he reveals that his power comes from the fact that he is the Son of God, not merely a son of Abraham: ‘I am’ is repeated once again, citing the name of God himself (Ex 3:14).
Blessing…
May we keep the Lord’s word not only in our minds but also in our deeds, that we may enjoy eternal life, with the blessing of almighty God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen!