Villa La Paz Newsletter June 2018

Covenant: Theol. The promise made by God to man, as recorded in the Bible.
Webster’s New World Dictionary,
Third College Edition

A solemn promise, fortified by an oath, concerning future action. The oath might be expressed in words or in a symbolic action.
Catholic Encyclopedia,
Revised Edition

The covenant is at the heart of God’s loving design from all eternity: although He has no need of human beings, He freely desires to bind Himself to a people with the very intimacy of a marriage bond.
Dictionary of the Liturgy

The stunning truth is that this Triune God, in amazing and lavish love, determined to open the circle and share the Trinitarian life with others. This is the one, eternal and abiding reason for the creation of the world and of human life. There is no other God, no other will of God, no second plan, no hidden agenda for human beings. Before the creation of the world, the Father, Son and Spirit set their love upon us and planned to bring us to share and know and experience the Trinitarian life itself. Unto this end the cosmos was called into being, and the human race was fashioned, and Adam and Eve were given a place in the coming of Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son Himself, in and through whom the dream of our adoption would be accomplished.
C. Baxter Kruger
The Shack Revisited
(Faith Words: 2012), 62.

From all eternity God determined that He would form a covenant with creation, a covenant which would allow all created things to enter into the Trinitarian existence and share the self-giving, total and infinite love of the three Divine Persons. We, His children, were to mirror that love by forming covenants to care for one another and the whole of created existence. We were to be beacons of the joy and love that abides in the Trinitarian Community of Father, Son, and Spirit. Sadly, in many instances, some would say in most, we have failed to honor our part of the covenant and this has spawned the social ills so prevalent in our world. Poverty exists because we do not share. Our cities abound with the homeless, the hungry, the despairing, who most of us would rather avoid. To be sure there are persons and organizations that care for the marginalized but the point is that the conditions which the organizations alleviate should not exist. If one were to mirror God’s unconditional love and honor our part of His covenant, there would be no poverty, no homelessness, no hunger. Wars and terrorism would not exist since love does not foster envy, greed, ethnic and religious strife, or covetousness. There would be no need for guns, bombs, armies and other articles of destruction and funds used for such things could be put at the service of the commonweal. Impossible? No. Improbable? Yes, but not impossible. We all have our mission in life and if we were to follow our mission faithfully and adhere to our part of God’s covenant the world would be a new creation.

God has created me to do him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which he has not committed to another. I have my mission. I never may know it in this life but I shall be told in the next. Somehow I am necessary for His purposes, as necessary in my place as an archangel in his. If indeed I fail, He can raise another, as He could make the stones children of Abraham. Yet I have a part in this great work; I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good. I shall do His work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it, if I do but keep His commandments and serve Him in my calling.
Blessed John Henry Newman

God has formed a special covenant with the children of this world. He repeatedly refers to them in the gospel, extolling their simplicity, unconditional love and trust. He enjoins us to become like them if we want to enter His kingdom. We must care for the children, nurture them and, indeed, become like them. They are tabernacles which enable us to see the face of God.

We thank you for enabling us to care for our children. We love you and wish you God’s peace.