covenant

Good_News

Do You Reflect The Good News?

Good_News

First Sunday Of Lent

Fr. Mark Gatto

Preached: February 18, 2024

When people experience your Catholic faith, in your words, in your actions, in your life, do they experience it as good news?  When people experience our Catholic Church, including our local parish, do they experience good news?  In the Gospel of Mark, it says that Jesus came proclaiming the good news of God.

What was this good news?  In Jesus, God was speaking a word of love to humanity.  God was saying, I love you, I forgive you.  God was saying that the will of God is for our salvation, not our condemnation.  In Jesus, many people for the first time were able to believe that they could be accepted by God, embraced by God.

Especially the poor, the tax collectors, women, the lepers, and so many others who had been convinced that they were not worthy, that they were not welcome with God.  Now, in Jesus they were hearing the incredible good news that, yes, God did want to receive them and they too could be welcomed in the Kingdom of God.

Imagine always being told that you were impure, not worthy, not loved by God.  Then you discover for the first time that it is possible for you to be received and embraced and loved by God.

One key word to understand the good news is the word Covenant.  In our first reading today, from the Book of Genesis, we see the Covenant established after the Great Flood between God and Noah and all living creatures.  Marked by the sign of a rainbow in the sky.  Later on we will see other Covenants formed by God with Abraham and with Moses on Mount Sinai.  Finally, in Jesus, God comes to reveal the eternal Covenant binding God to us for eternity in unconditional love and mercy.

We express this Covenant every time we celebrate the Eucharist.  We hear the words of Jesus at the Last Supper, “this is the chalice of my blood, the blood of the new and eternal covenant.”  We use this word Covenant to describe what Christian Marriage is meant to be.  The best definition of Covenant I have heard is simple, “Covenant is the promise to remain.”  This is the good news, God’s promise to remain with us in life and in death with an unconditional love for eternity.

First preaching of Jesus is “repent and believe in the good news.”  People struggle to believe in the good news of the eternal love of God.  Struggle to believe in the covenant of God promising to remain and who desires our salvation and not condemnation.  Many of us find it difficult to believe this good news.  We feel we are not worthy, that we not good enough.  But, Jesus proclaimed good news, revealed the great covenant, the promise to remain by a God who longs for us and loves us.

Our challenge as Catholics, as disciples of Jesus, is to live and speak and be with others in a way that will help them to believe in the good news of God’s Covenant in Jesus.  That God embraces them.  Do people experience this good news in their encounter with the Church, in their encounter with you?

I saw this quote by a minister recently. He said, “Our Christianity should sound like this: ‘the world is full of neighbours to be understood and loved,’ not ‘the world is full of enemies to be feared and conquered.’”  How we live our faith, the way we speak about our faith, the way we treat others, does it reflect  good news?

Reflect good news in your Catholic faith.  Speak to people, speak about people, be with people, in  a way that reflects this undying love of God who promises to remain with us.

Believe the good news brought by Jesus, that God is in love with you.  Then help others to believe that God is in love with them.

 

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Painting_of_the_Foot_Washing_-_Santa_Maria_del_Mar_-_Barcelona_2014

The Promise To Remain

Painting_of_the_Foot_Washing_-_Santa_Maria_del_Mar_-_Barcelona_2014

Holy Thursday

Fr. Mark Gatto

Preached: April 14, 2022

What is one of the most important words in the Catholic faith?

Covenant.  But it is also one that many do not really think about often.  It is actually a concept rooted in our Jewish heritage, found throughout the Old Testament.  Throughout salvation history, there has been a series of covenants.

After Noah’s Ark there was the covenant established by God with all humanity symbolized in the rainbow.  Then there was the covenant with Abraham, symbolized by circumcision.  God establishing a relationship with a particular people.

Later there was the covenant established through Moses.  Rooted in the Law.  Celebrated in the yearly Passover meal that Jesus celebrated at his Last Supper.

Covenant is the word we use to describe the marriage of a Catholic in the church.  Spouses make the vows to be faithful “in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health.”

As we celebrate the Eucharist, we are celebrating the New Covenant, listen how often we hear that word, Covenant.

The best definition of Covenant that I have heard is Covenant is “the promise to remain.”  In Jesus, God came among us to make it clear that God will remain with us.  That even in our death, God remains with us.  Every time we celebrate the Eucharist, we are recalling this Covenant, God’s promise to remain.  In simple bread and wine, we have the Real Presence of Jesus.

In Jesus, God is saying to you and to me, I will remain with you, I will not abandon you. What a great gift to have someone who promises to remain with us in good and bad.

At this Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday we always listen to the Last Supper account from the Gospel of John.  It is very different from the other Gospels.  The main focus is Jesus getting down to wash the feet of his disciples.  In fact, perhaps the best symbol of Christianity is the towel.  A model of humble service.

Within our families, within our church, the towel of humble service is the key to healthy families and a healthy church.  Sometimes in cartoons we see God sending down lightening bolts to strike the evil down.  Sometimes someone who has been away from church for a long time will joke about being struck by lightning.  But, a truer image of God is God getting down on his knees with a towel to wash away our hurts and pains.

Our world promotes domination, power over others, it is seen time and again in wars between nations, at this time with Russia invading the Ukraine.  Within families we also see this when violence and force is used to have control over a spouse.

The way of Jesus is reflected in Holy Thursday, the simple towel of humble service.  You could call this the Holy Thursday revolution.  Imagine what a difference it would make if parents and spouses held towels instead of wanting control and domination.  Imagine if priests held towels of humble service rather than control and domination.  Imagine if humanity embraced the humble service of the towel rather than the way of force and violence.

On this Holy Thursday, we celebrate the new covenant, God’s promise to remain. Then we are offered the towel of humble service to guide all of our relationships.

One of the greatest gifts you can offer to another person, is what God offers to us, the promise to remain, in good and bad.

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