Christ is the mediator of the New Covenant, so let those who are called may through his death receive the promised eternal inheritance.

Hebr 9:15

Impulses on Gen 17:1a.3-9 und John 8:51-59

The liturgy of this season of Lent expects us to cope with a lot. Chapter 8 of John's Gospel already shows the theological wrestling of Jesus with "the Jews" as it says bluntly and in a wholesale fashion in this Gospel. We know that Christian antisemitism unfortunately and inexcusably felt vindicated because of such passages. We must no longer read these passages in this way today!

And yet: Let's also be honest about this: Jesus' fate is not just the consequence of a divine plan of salvation. Jesus consistently ignores the principles of the theology of salvation of his time. This conduct has to result in confrontation and conflict eventually.

For there is someone who belongs to us a fellow human being – and yet he is utterly different from us on account of his close relationship with God, a most ardent union with the One he calls Father. And this God and Father honours a human being: Jesus, His beloved Son. 

Jesus never said: I am God. But one who is so in union with God is able to say: "Before Abraham was, I am" (John 8:58).

God already wanted to enter into an eternal covenant with Abraham. The New Covenant, however, quasi becomes eternal from two sides. Through Jesus, our fellow human being, we are included in the covenant. We repeatedly gather for prayer and holy mass to celebrate this covenant. To celebrate the life of the living God, to confide our inadequacies to Him and to draw new confidence from His love, we celebrate the Eucharist. - Putting our trust in God is our calling. And to light up this world with faith in God – the multitude of people – like Abraham. God is no stranger to any human being. He does not demand anything of us that would be strange to us. He allows us to sort ourselves out completely and be ourselves. HE is the closest confidant for everyone who receives HIM today. 

Yes, whoever begins to listen to HIM can discover just like Augustine did, that God closely belongs to us and is even closer to us than we are to ourselves: "Deus interior intimo meo et superior summo meo“ (Augustinus: Confessions III 6:11). HE has long since been our confidant, the lover, as the mystics put it. It's only in my relationship to HIM that I will become who I really am. 

A reflection written by Jeremias Kiesl O.S.A., Priest, Erfurt, Germany

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