The Old Testament is all about God’s covenants with the Jewish people. What is a covenant? It is more than a contract… It is a way that people in the old testament would form family bonds.

The ceremony for making a covenant was that you cut an animal in half and walk through the middle of them…. That symbolized that if you broke the covenant that you would be cut in half. It is a serious thing!! There are five covenants in the old testament

1) Adam and Eve 2) Noah 3) Abraham 4) Moses 5) David

This first covenant is at the very beginning of the world. God created the world in 7 days (not necessarily literal 24 hour days). The Hebrew word for covenant mean, “to seven oneself” The 7 days has a deeper meaning than a literal period of time. The 7 days have spiritual significance that tells us that God is making a covenant with his creatures. Adam and Eve were the recipients of this first covenant of God. He promised them dominion over the whole world! In return He asked for obedience.

God promises never again to destroy the world by flood. The covenant is made with all humanity, through the mediator, Noah, in his role as the father of his family. The covenant includes blessings to Noah and his family (that they will be fruitful and fill the earth) and conditions that must be obeyed (not to drink the blood of any animals, not to shed human blood). The sign of the covenant is the rainbow in the sky. By this covenant, God's people assumes the form of a domestic household, an extended family.

God swears to give Abraham a great land and to bless his descendants, who will become a great nation. God makes the covenant with the mediator Abraham in his representative role as chieftain. God promises the blessings of land and great nationhood for his descendants, and through them to bless all the nations of the earth. The sign of the covenant is the mark of circumcision. Circumcision is also the condition that Abraham and his descendants must obey in order to keep the covenant. By this covenant, God's family is takes a "tribal" form.

By this covenant, made with the mediator Moses in his representative role as the judge and liberator of Israel, God swears to be Israel's God and Israel swears to worship no other but the Lord God alone. The blessings promised are that they will be God's precious and chosen people. The conditions of the covenant are that they must keep God's Law and commandments. The covenant sign is the Passover, which each year commemorates Israel's birth as a nation. By this covenant, God's family assumes the form of a "holy nation, a kingdom of priests."

God promises to establish the mediator David's "house" or kingdom forever, through David's heir, who will also build a temple to God's name. To David in his role as king, God promises to make David's son His son, to punish him if he does wrong but never take away his royal throne. "Your house and you kingdom shall endure forever" and through the blessings of this kingdom God promises to give wisdom to all the nations. The sign of the covenant will be the throne and Temple to be built by David's son, Solomon. By this covenant, God's family grows to take the form of a royal empire, a national kingdom.

The New Testament is the story of how God formed a new covenant with His people. He sent Jesus to be our savior from sin and death. When Jesus came he made a covenant with the whole of humanity making this “new covenant” a world wide covenant. All of the covenants of the bible are fulfilled in Jesus’s teaching, crucifixion and death, and resurrection.

The New covenant is prefigured in all of the old ones. One example of this is found in the covenant with Moses and the Israelites. When God gave Moses the rules for the ark of the covenant He told Moses to have a special tent just for the Ark and do you know what it was called? The Tabernacle And in this Tabernacle God told Moses that along with the ark there had to be two other things that were always in the Tabernacle...  The first thing was a candle that was never allowed to go out  the second was a plate with Unleavened bread on it.... Does any of this sound familiar??

 That is right there is in our church a Tabernacle with consecrated unleavened bread inside and what do we always see next to the Tabernacle so that we know that Jesus is present?.... A candle burning that is never supposed to go out!

Jesus didn’t come just to save us from hell. He came to elevate us to be His brothers and sisters. We are adopted into the family of God by Christ becoming man and elevating our nature. JP2 said that God in His deepest reality is not an isolation, He is a family. God calls us to join into His deepest mystery; to enter into His Trinitarian love.

How do you know that you are part of a family? 1) You have the same name 2) You look like one another 3) You share a common flesh and blood

So how does God fulfill all of these and makes us His family? 1) Same name: When you are baptized what is said when the Priest pours the water over your head? “I baptize you in the NAME of The Father, and of The Son, and the Holy Spirit” The way we participate in the New Covenant by going to mass and receiving His son through the Eucharist. 2) Look alike “Then God said, ‘let us make in out image, after our likeness.’” (Gen 1:26) We are Created in the image and likeness of God!! By our nature we are made with the capacity to know God. 3) Common Flesh and Blood: When we receive the Eucharist what happens? We share the same flesh and blood as Jesus (meaning that we share the same flesh and blood as GOD!!

We as Catholic’s call the Church, “Holy Mother Church”. This title comes from the fact that the Church is Christ’s bride. If God is married to the Church, and we are the fruits of the Church, then we are God’s children through the Church.

All Christians are our brothers and sisters through their baptism. Unfortunately we are not all able to live under the same roof or gather around the same table and eat together.