THE COVENANT OF PERPETUAL INHERITANCE

Thursday, Fifth Week of Lent/2024
Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke,OP

Theme: The Covenant of Inheritance

We discuss further the theme of this week’s reflection, which is covenant, taking up the aspect of the perpetuity of the covenant and the inheritance thereby. We cannot over-emphasize that the word of God spoken to men constitutes a covenant relation. The word of God is God by essence, and when spoken to men, it establishes a relationship between God and men who receive and keep the word. By keeping the word of God within us, we become a habitation of God, who invariably becomes man’s habitation and shelter. Thus, the Promise God made to Abraham became a reality by the very fact of God speaking and willing it. The physical manifestation of what God promised would depend on and wait for Abraham’s internalisation of the word and exercise of faith in the word of God. Hence, because the word of God became his dwelling place and gradually evolved the physical realities promised him, the word is said to be Abraham’s inheritance. The word of God is the Promised Land, the multitude of nations who are his progenies, his fruitfulness, the kings issuing from him, his perpetual Covenant, and the God of Abraham. The word of God spoken to Abraham is the seed of all these realities manifested in his life. The word of God is God given for our safekeeping.

If the word of God is the seed for the manifestation of all the promises of God, then a faithful heart is the fertile soil for sowing of the seed. “He (the Lord) remembers his covenant for ever, his promise for a thousand generations, the covenant he made with Abraham, the oath he swore to Isaac.” Because the Lord remembers his promise the seed of the word of God is undying. How can we forget what God has promised? Jesus Christ enunciated this truth in the gospel. “I tell you most solemnly, whoever keeps my word will never see death.” Faith in the word of God makes us live in the word of God undying and ever present. Therefore, the word of God is the spiritual Land Promised to Abraham and his faithful progenies, and the Land of Canaan is the physical Land Promised to Abraham and his physical descendants. Thus, just as Abraham passed away physically, the Land of Canaan will pass away with all who physically inherited it from Abraham. But Abraham remains in the spiritual Land of Promise that he entered spiritually by keeping the word of God. The spiritual Promised Land is also inherited in faith by all the spiritual progenies of Abraham, who believed in the word of God. Jesus tried to pass this truth to the Jews but had difficulty due to their lack of faith. “Your father Abraham rejoiced to think that he would see my Day; he saw it and was glad.” If the Eternal Word of God has his Day, he also has his Land. It is the Promised Land we shall inherit in perpetuity. 

Let us pray: Grant us, Lord, the grace to firmly believe in your word and become full heirs of your Promise. 

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