First Sunday in Lent, Year B
Theme: Enter into Covenant with God 與天主立約
The Bible is obviously not a science book, but it is not a moral manual either. However, many of its messages agree with folk wisdom. For example, “No man is an island” is an aphorism which the Bible agrees. “The Lord God said: It is not good for the man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18a). In context, “the man” refers to the first man whom God created in His own image. From Adam came the rest of humanity. Therefore, “the man” refers to the whole humanity as well. In other words, man is a social animal. He lives, grows and ages in a community, a network of relationships. Since men live and communicate in time, each of them has a history. Their past as well as their future determine their actions in the present. Projects, especially huge ones, take time to finish. Therefore, human beings make promises with each other to deal with important events in the future. Those promises take different forms such as agreements, contracts and covenants, depending on the seriousness of the matter involved. Let us take a deeper look into these agreements.
Promises can be one-sided. For example, Mr. A promises Ms. B to bring her to dinner. There is no obligation for Ms. B to go and even if she does go, she doesn’t have to do anything in return to repay. However, when a passenger takes a taxi to visit Disneyland, the taxi driver has entered into a contract with the passenger. Both sides have rights to enjoy and duties to perform: The taxi driver has the duty to drive the passenger to Disneyland and the passenger has the duty to pay the fee. One’s duty becomes the right of the other party. Of course, accidents may happen or one of the parties may breach the contract. Such circumstances give rise to the question of fair compensation. Then a third and impartial party arise to handle disputes. However, some contracts are beyond monetary compensation because many stakes-holders take part in it. The agreements involve not just money but also lives. The parties involved guarantee those contracts with their lives. We call such agreements covenants! Usually, tribes, states, nations and empires enter into covenants.
Some nations are small while empires are usually enormous. Therefore, most covenants are unequal in the sense that the privileges are not in proportion to the obligations. For example, an empire might want to show off her grandeur by entering into unequal covenants with smaller vassal states. She showers them with a lot of gold, jewels and enrols students from vassal states in her “universities” to study her culture and technologies while the vassal states offer inexpensive local produces annually. I am sure my readers who have followed my train of thoughts thus far are able to smell what I am trying to say. Yes! God created men in His own image (Genesis 1:26). Therefore, humanity is in no position to enter into equal covenants with God. From our political experiences, we can conclude that when God enters into covenants with humanity, He is condescending like an empire entering into unequal covenants with vassal states. God wants to shower us with His abundant and overflowing love for our good and whatever obligations we honour can at most be negligible!
Some biblical scholars insist that God entered into covenant with our First Parents when He blessed them, commissioned them to manage the world (Genesis 1:27, 2:15) and forbade them to eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (2:16-17) and after the Fall of our First Parents, God promised humanity redemption (3:15) etc. It seems to me that the arguments are thin and thus it can only be an opinion and not a consensus among scholars. Take a look at the first reading today. We read of a covenant explicitly mentioned in Genesis --- the covenant between God and Noah and all the living creatures. “See, I am now establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you: the birds, the tame animals, and all the wild animals that were with you --- all that came out of the ark” (Genesis 9:9-10). Genesis mentions this covenant when God revealed His intention to wipe out the corruptions and sins on earth to Noah (6:18). Of course, in Chapter 6 before Noah built and entered into the Ark, the covenant was vague. When Noah emerged from the Ark in Chapter 9, the covenant became very specific, “I will establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all creatures be destroyed by the waters of a flood; there shall not be another flood to devastate the earth” (9:11). We live in time. It takes time for God’s intention to unfold and for our understanding of God’s will to become clearer.
In the second reading today, Peter interprets the flood in a positive manner by drawing our attention to the cleansing function of water rather than its destructive potential. “This [flood] prefigured baptism, which save you now” (1 Peter 3:21a). The Church adopts this interpretation and many people even see Noah’s Ark as a pre-figure of the Church herself. I have reservation in seeing the Church as an Ark in this sin-infested world because “the Lord shut him [Noah] in [the ark]” (Genesis 7:16c). Therefore, the Ark is a closed life-boat for a chosen remnant and NOT a vessel opens to save all! Of course, you may make use of Paul’s predestination argument but I hesitate to make things complicated.
Another thorny issue is probably inevitable. Peter continues, “It is not a removal of dirt from the body but an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 3:21b). There is no doubt about the forgiveness of sins, Original and Actual, through baptism, resulting in a “clear conscience”. But Peter has not settled the thorny question whether the forgiveness means a removal of sins or a covering of sins. For example, further on Peter says, “love covers a multitude of sins” (4:8b) and Paul quotes the Psalms and says, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered” (Romans 4:7; Psalms 32:1). Therefore, it seems that during the apostolic age, the forgiveness of sins did not remove sins but covered them only. The Father does not count our trespasses through the resurrection of Jesus Christ by covering and not seeing them! Perhaps that explains why the risen Lord retains the Stigmata, suggesting that the Lord God has no intention to remove sins.
The Temptation narrative in the gospel of Mark is very brief whereas the other two Synoptic gospels fill in the details to meet the needs of their Christian communities. The forty days in the desert point to the 40-year Exodus experience which implicitly suggests the emergence of a New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34). Read again the narrative of Mark, “He was among wild beasts, and the angels ministered to Him” (Mark 1:13b). Of course, Mark affirms once again Jesus Christ is the Son of God (1:1) with “the angels ministered to Him”. The solitary figure among wild beasts portrays Jesus Christ as the Adam in Genesis 2, albeit the New one! Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the New Adam of a New Creation! At the end of this gospel, Jesus commissioned the Eleven to “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature” (16:15). The gospel of Mark is truly catholic, ecological and global!
Beloved brethren! Let us go forth to renew God’s covenant with the whole Creation. Amen!
2021 Reflection
Picture Credit: theahmadireligion.org
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