by Return to Me: Lenten Reflections by Holy Cross 2019
“I will maintain my covenant with you and…your descendants after you.”
Genesis reminds us that God’s covenant extends both before us and after us. It also emphasizes that a covenant is a mutual agreement, not a one-sided promise. While God promises Abraham many wonderful things, God also tells him that he has a part to play and a duty to pass on this covenant to the generations that come after him.
How many generations have had to uphold Abraham’s end of the covenant to get to our own understanding today? My parents did their part in raising my sister and me to know the word of God. As a parent myself now, I honor that covenant by passing on the knowledge of God’s great love to my own children. It is my hope that they will someday do the same for their children, connecting their life stories to the many that came before them.
My parents met at Holy Cross while attending a wedding in St. Joseph Memorial Chapel. Every day as I come to work, I walk past the place where my own life story first began. It is a constant reminder that God’s plans for us are part of a greater promise and that it is to God we owe the glory, not our own striving. As Jesus tells us in the Gospel today:
“If I glorify myself, my glory is worth nothing; but it is my Father who glorifies me…”