Covenant: God’s Covenant with Humanity
God made a covenant with humanity five times, and the new covenant in Jesus Christ fulfils them all. Consummatum est.
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The history of Christ’s victory
Not finished yet! Let us look at a few more points of view on the Mass from the Bible.
God’s covenant with humanity
- People grow from babies into adults.
- Spiritually, our maturity goes through the same stages of growth.
- God guides us like a father who understands every stage of his child’s growing up.
- In the Bible, the whole story of God and humanity is coloured by the idea of “covenant”. God made a covenant with humanity 5 times:
| Covenant | Received by |
|---|---|
| Adam | A couple (husband and wife) |
| Noah | A family |
| Abraham | An extended family |
| Moses | 12 tribes |
| David | A kingdom / nation |
- The last covenant (the new covenant) God made with human nature itself, through the person of Jesus Christ.
- Matthew 26:28 → For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins
- The receiver of this covenant is the whole of humanity itself.
The liturgical pattern of God’s covenants
- Every moment of God’s covenant with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and finally Jesus Christ, follows the pattern of the 3 themes of the Book of Revelation (see the previous section)
- The appearing of the King, the great procession, the wedding / great feast
The new covenant fulfils the old
The analogy of a long-distance marriage (God: the husband, humanity: the wife)
- In the old covenant, at first, the husband’s life and work let him stay near his wife
- But because of the demands of his work, the husband has to go far away, out of town, with no certain date of return
- The husband often sends his wife messages from afar, giving her requests, or “laws”:
- For example: plant the garden with certain flowers, buy a certain soap, he would like a photo of her in a certain dress
- The husband does this to stay in touch and to express his love for his wife
- In the new covenant, the time comes for the husband to come home. The requests he sent over the years were not wrong, and are not done away with,
- Because when they can share moments together again, touching and looking at each other, the new requests and the old can only be seen from the perspective of what they are living: love.
The new liturgy in the light of the covenant
- Through Jesus, God and humanity are reconciled and “married”, so that they can once again live a relationship full of love and intimacy.
- Revelation 19:7 → “the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride (the Church) has made herself ready”
- Matthew 19:6 → they are no longer two but one
- The new covenant of God and humanity is celebrated every day (Malachi 1:11)
- The Catholic Church offers the means to be united with the Body, Soul and Divinity of God in the sacrament of the Eucharist every day (obligatory on Sunday, the day of Jesus Christ’s resurrection)
Consummatum est
When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said: Consummatum est. And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit
— John 19:30
The meaning of consummatum, in English consummate: to make a marriage valid by the union of husband and wife.
By his sacrifice on the cross and his resurrection, Jesus unites humanity with God, who is happiness, peace and joy itself.