I continue to explore the meanings in the Consecration before moving on to other aspects of the Mass. Today I look at the whole concept of "Covenant" found in the Old Testament an continued in the New. I examine this to help us appreciate the meaning of the words of Jesus found in the Consecration of the wine in the Eucharistic Prayer:
The Priest (Taking up the Chalice of wine) says:
"TAKE THIS, ALL OF YOU, AND DRINK FROM IT,
FOR THIS IS THE CHALICE OF MY BLOOD,
"THE BLOOD OF THE NEW AND ETERNAL COVENANT,
WHICH WILL BE POURED OUT FOR YOU AND FOR MANY
FOR THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS.
"DO THIS IN MEMORY OF ME."
In the Scriptures a covenant establishes a relationship which is deeply committed, faithful and loyal. It is similar to one party becoming related to another. Marriage is a type of Covenant. The word "Covenant" literally means "a coming together."
In the Middle Eastern culture of Biblical times , a king could establish a covenant between himself and his people. So it is for God and his people, but it is a relationship that is not legalistic but deeply personal. It sets up promises and obligations between God and God’s People.
Biblical studies mention what is sometimes called "The Classic Covenant Formula." It is expressed in any statement (explicit or implied) where God establishes his Covenant by saying: "I shall be your God and you shall be my People." For example, in the Book of Leviticus 26:12: "I will walk among you; I will be your God, and you will be my people."
In the case of the Book of Leviticus, God is saying this to the People of Israel, delivered from the slavery of Egypt through Moses. God establishes Israel and his Covenant with them on Mt. Sinai.
Signs would be given when a covenant was made: usually something involving blood. This was to signify that the covenant made the two parties like family, "the same blood" as we would say today. So we read in the Book of Exodus 24:6-8:
"And Moses took half of the blood [of sacrificed oxen] and put it in basins,
and half of the blood he threw against the altar [which represents God].
Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people.
And they said, "All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient."
And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said,
"Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you
in accordance with all these words."
"Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up,
and they saw the God of Israel. ...And God did not lay his hand
on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank."
Note that the Sinai Covenant was ratified with blood and that there was also a "covenant meal" where the elders ate in the Presence of God. Sharing a meal together was a sign of being ‘family." So Israel is the family of God.
Throughout time, the People of Israel did not always keep the Covenant. They did not act as God’s People. They would either fall into idolatry or into injustice, not treating each other as God’s People. So God makes a further promise to his People through the Prophet Jeremiah 31:31-34:
"The days are surely coming, says the Lord,
when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.
It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt
—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord.
"But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, says the Lord:
I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts;
and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord’,
for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord;
for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more."
Now let’s see what happens with the New Covenant that Jesus brings us. It’s actually a renewal of "the Old Covenant." Jesus came to initiate us into a Covenant relationship with God. We are to be in the deepest kind of personal and communal relationship with God, to be his People and he our God.
For the Israelites the "mark of the Covenant" was circumcision, a type of initiation into the People of God by all Jewish males. In the New Covenant, we are Baptized (which "marks" our soul), an initiation into Christ and his Body the Church. It is an inclusive sign of the Covenant, for men and women alike.
The Eucharist is our "Covenant Meal," the renewal of our Covenant in Baptism. We eat and drink together as the family of God. We are baptized only once; the renewal is in participating in the Mass continuously, each Sunday.
The words of Consecration over the wine remind us of the "Blood of the Covenant," used in the Sinai Covenant to symbolize the deep and familial relationship of God with the People. It also reminds us of Jeremiah’s promise of "the New Covenant." So at the Consecration we hear:
TAKE THIS, ALL OF YOU, AND DRINK FROM IT,
FOR THIS IS THE CHALICE OF MY BLOOD,
THE BLOOD OF THE NEW AND ETERNAL COVENANT,
WHICH WILL BE POURED OUT FOR YOU AND FOR MANY
FOR THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS.
When we hear these words spoken by the Priest, representing Christ, we can recall all that the Covenant means. We have been made God’s People, his own beloved children and family. We are to love him and obey him and live in the forgiveness of sins. We can always claim our Covenant relationship with God, and live as his People in this world.
As 2 Corinthians 6:16 says: "For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, "I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people."
(For an extensive treatment about the Covenant see this citation "Lesson One: The Master Key that Unlocks the Bible " HERE)
Next Week: The Eucharist as the Christian Passover.
