(5th Sunday of Lent, Year B) On these five Sundays of Lent, we’ve been reminded of God’s covenants with us. These are the ways that God was made known to us, and was united with humanity. The first Sunday, God’s covenant with Noah and his descendants. The second Sunday, God’s covenant with Abraham and his descendants, which would bless all the nations of the earth. The third Sunday, the covenant with Moses laws for the nation of Israel. The fourth Sunday, God’s covenant with David, who in many ways lived in the power of the Spirit of the Lord, as if our new covenant was already in place.
Today, God promises through Jeremiah a new covenant. A covenant in which God will write the law on hearts. A covenant where nobody has to know God for us (remember how in the desert, the Children of Israel asked for a human mediator who could talk to God for them? Not any more.), but each can know God for themselves. A covenant with all Israel and Judah, the whole people. A covenant from the least to the greatest. A covenant in which not only is our evildoing forgiven, but even forgotten by God entirely.
In each of these covenants, we learn a bit more about God, and we also become more familiar with God. This is God’s desire. Not just that we would know “about” God, but that we would “know” God. In Spanish, this is the difference between saber, to know facts and learned skills and information about a person, place, or thing, and conocer, to be familiar with a person, place, or thing. English is lacking in this area. Even in previous times, in English, we would say that Abraham knew his wife Sarai, and she bore a son. We know (saber) from the context, that Abram did not know (saber) his wife, but was intimately familiar (conocer) with her.
The point being… God desires that we desire and acquire an intimate knowledge of God. When God says “I will be their God, and they shall be my people” it is a direct reference to the marriage covenant: I will be your husband, and you shall be my wife. That is because it is not in knowing (about), but in “knowing” (as persons) that we are fruitful.
So. Do you know God?
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