Reflections from the Heart – February 18, 2024

First Sunday of Lent
by Fr. Ivan Olmo

“See, I am now establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you.”  From the very first dawn of light and even so much time before it, God entered into covenant with creation.  God entered into a holy matrimony with his creation even before he proposed to it.  At the very thought of bringing creation forth, at the inception of bringing it into existence and being, God already promised to be faithful to creation in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health.  God promised and vowed fidelity and faithfulness to his creation by loving it, maintaining it and honoring his vows all the days of our life and all the ages of the eternal life, that God lives for eternity.  God in his infinite love and holy wisdom saw the goodness of creation. From the moment of its original and initial thought, into the moment of its conception and through its formation and its birth, God saw creation and all that he creates and would create to be very good.  God could see creation through its life destined for union and communion with God and could see the death it would cause by turning away from God’s covenant and would rather seek to be greater than greatness itself and become more powerful than power itself. A selfish thought; a foolish desire, a destructive idea.  God could foresee the tragic effects of the fatal fall creation would cause and have to experience and still love loves, continues to love, will always love and would love once again.  God would determine and decide the rising again, the restoring of life, the honoring of the friendship that would be necessary.  God’s love foresees and foreshadows healing, reconciliation and forgiveness that love would have to accomplish.  Great love and divine mercy would have to conquer great sin and world suffering.  So much work and effort to create.  So much time and patience needed to redeem and save.  So much, it would take to call out creation to love and come back to love again.  The Lord would have to experience tremendous mocking from his rebellious children.  The Lord would have to endure the rejection that will transpire from having to call out repeatedly to his creation to return to innocence and to honor the covenant that gave it life and fashioned it into being.  Still our faithful covenant God, who is love personified, chooses to love and to remain in loving covenant even before he creates, knowing how unfaithful his creation would become. That’s love.