Fr. John Ryan

 

NINETEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
12th August

Pacts and contracts - we enter into them all the time. We sign the dotted line promising one thing in exchange for another. It is part and parcel of commercial life and indeed it enters into other areas of life as well. Marriage, for instance, is often described as a contract. There is an agreement made between two people. They both promise each other something and accept the promise of the other. From that point of view it is contract and that fact was mentioned recently in the announcement of changes in the area of civil marriages that will take effect in the near future. Of course, from the point of view of sacrament it is a contract that has no out close except death. Raised to a new level by Christ, it contains its contractual nature but transcends the commercial nature of contract due to the role Christ plays in the formation of the contract - what God has joined together no one must separate.
The history of salvation is full of contracts and pacts. The first reading this morning highlights that - "this divine pact they struck with one accord". The People of Israel entered into covenant (promise) with God, they would be his people and he would be their God. Through Abraham, Moses and David the covenant was put in place and renewed. In Jesus we enter into a new covenant, a new contract or promise. We are his people and he is our Saviour. The promise we make when we profess faith in him as God and saviour is the promise to follow his way. We are called to be like those described in the Letter to the Hebrews - "recognising that they were only strangers and nomads on earth. People who use such terms about themselves make it quite plain that they are in search of their real homeland." Our side of the bargain, to put it crudely, is to search: we search for the way of Jesus Christ in this world, he has given us all that we need and now it is up to us to follow it and live according to it.
Living the way of the Lord ensures that our lamps are lit, and that we are ready for action. To have our lamps lit means to live the faith handed down from the apostles; it is to absorb into our whole way of living the tenets of the sermon on the mount, the beatitudes, the teachings of Jesus regarding forgiveness, mercy, love, truth, justice and sacrifice. When we fail to forgive then our lamps are surely quenched. If we fail to act justly and correctly we are late for the master's table and are in danger of being locked out. To know Jesus is to live for him. To truly live in faith is to live according to his message and recognise that when we hear his word we hear the Father's word. It doesn't make sense to say I believe that Jesus is the Son of God, made man and then say but I don't agree with what he is saying. The positive affirmation of one and the negative response to the other are contradictory. To believe in Jesus should lead to believing Jesus.
May we believe Jesus and model ourselves on his way taking our place in the reality of the divine pact sealed in the blood of Jesus Christ.