THE COVENANT OF ABSOLUTE FREEDOM

Wednesday, Fifth Week of Lent/2024

Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke,OP

Theme: The Covenant of Absolute Freedom

The word of God is essentially a covenant between God and whoever believes and holds onto it. All the covenants are the same on the side of God because they are the word of God spoken to men. But each takes a different form according to the time and circumstances of those who constitute the audience. Before the Eternal Word became flesh at the fullness of time, those who believed in the Word of God down the salvation history understood they had to believe and trust God. The gauge of the depth of their communion with God and interaction with him was the faith they exercised in his word. The three young Israelites in the first reading lived their covenant with God while in Babylon. In their challenging circumstance, their faith in God required defying the orders of the king of Babylon. They did their part, and God showed himself to be their God. “If you refuse to worship it (the golden statue), you must be thrown straight away into the burning fiery furnace; where is the god who could save you from my power?” The three young men replied to King Nebuchadnezzar, “Your question hardly requires an answer: if our God, the own we serve, is able to save us from the burning fiery furnace and from your power, O king, he will save us; and even if he does not, then you must know, O king, that we will not serve your god or worship the statue you have erected.” Their response showed a good understanding of their covenant with God; the word of God is dependable objectively and not relatively.

Their response to the king’s question and the true meaning of covenant with God it contains, give us light to understand the New Covenant the Eternal Word has established with us in his humanity. It is absolute in that God has objectively given the human race his word for their salvation. Salvation is absolute in that it depends on human faith in the word of God and divine understanding of our salvation and not on our conception of our salvation. The implication is that faith in the word of God restores our communion with God. Our Lord had difficulty teaching this doctrine to the believing Jews in the gospel. “To the Jews who believed in him, Jesus said: ‘If you make my word your home you will indeed be my disciples, you will learn the truth and the truth will make you free.’” The freedom our Lord referred to here is the same freedom the three young men enjoyed even while exiled in Babylon; the freedom they enjoyed when the king enacted a law forcing everyone to idolatry; the freedom they enjoyed when they were bound and cast into the burning furnace. All these situations were instances of the absolute freedom they gained in believing the word of God deep within their hearts. No matter the situation and circumstances of our lives, faith in the word of God brings us into the covenant of absolute freedom. We gain this absolute salvation by understanding that God is a Sacrifice, and a covenant with him is a vocation to be a sacrifice. “If God were your father, you would love me, since I have come here from God; yes, I have come from him; not that I came because I chose, no, I was sent, and by him.” 

Let us pray: Grant us, Lord, the grace to understand the New Covenant in your Son, that we may make our lives a true sacrifice to you.   

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