God’s “Yes” to us

Abbot Raymond

Sent: Sunday, February 22, 2009

Subject: God’s “Yes” to us.

Second reading 2 Corinthians 1:18-22 ©

I swear by God’s truth, there is no Yes and No about what we say to you. The Son of God, the Christ Jesus that we proclaimed among you – I mean Silvanus and Timothy and I – was never Yes and No: with him it was always Yes, and however many the promises God made, the Yes to them all is in him. That is why it is ‘through him’ that we answer Amen to the praise of God. Remember it is God himself who assures us all, and you, of our standing in Christ, and has anointed us, marking us with his seal and giving us the pledge, the Spirit, that we carry in our hearts.

God’s “Yes” to us.

St Paul tells us that Jesus is God’s “Yes” to us regarding the truth, the sincerity, the earnestness of all his promises to us in the Old Testament. They all find their affirmation in Christ.

The Old Testament is like a jig-saw puzzle in which the answer to all the clues is “Jesus”. Whatever the puzzle, whatever the event or story in the Old Testament, if we apply it to Jesus we find it springs into meaning.

In the Old Testament God declares Israel to be his Chosen People, a People set apart. In the New Testament Jesus affirms this promise and tells that its fulfilment is by way of a Rebirth, a new life, a new form of existence as the Children of God by Grace in a way that the Old Testament hardly dreamed of.

In the Old Testament God proclaims his love for his People. In the New, Jesus is the living proof of that love: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son”.

In the Old Testament God proclaims his closeness to his People. In the New, we see in Jesus just how close.

In the Old Testament there are many beautiful stories of God’s loving forgiveness but which of them can match the words of Jesus on the Cross: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do”. In the Old Testament David expresses his forgiveness for Absalom in those poignant and unforgettable words: “O Absalom, would that I had died instead of you” These prophetic words are affirmed in the death of Jesus for us. In the Old Testament the death of Samson is proclaim to be his greatest triumph. In the New, these words too find their fulfilment in the death of Christ.

In the Old Testament Isaac says to his Father Abraham: “Here is the fire and the wood, but where is the victim” In the New Testament Jesus shows us who the victim is, but unlike Isaac, he was well aware of who it was to be from the very beginning. “Sacrifice and oblation you did not want; instead, here am I”.

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