Today's Gospel Deuteronomy 26:16-19 Moses spoke to the people, saying: "This day the LORD, your God, commands you to observe these statutes and decrees. Be careful, then, to observe them with all your heart and with all your soul. Today you are making this agreement with the LORD: | He is to be your God and you are to walk in His ways and observe His statutes, commandments and decrees, and to hearken to His voice. And today the LORD is making this agreement with you: you are to be a people peculiarly His own, as He promised you; and provided you keep all His commandments, He will then raise you high in praise and renown and glory above all other nations He has made, and you will be a people sacred to the LORD, your God, as He promised." |
Today's reading comes from the Book of Deuteronomy where Moses gives five sermons to the Israelites to remind them of where they came from, how the Lord dealt mercifully with them, and the laws they must follow. Repeatedly in this text, Moses reminds the people that the Lord is making an agreement with them: God will be your God, He will glorify you and love you and on your part, you will keep His commandments and listen to His voice. We too are in an agreement with God, a covenant.
At our Baptism, our Godparents made an act of faith for us and made an agreement with God to raise us in His ways. At Confirmation, we choose to believe in God and follow His ways as the Catholic Church guides us, and in return He agrees to give us all the grace we need to be faithful to Him and He will fill us with His joy and peace.
At the Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday Masses we renew our Baptismal Promises. Do we reject all of Satan's works and do we reject all practice of sin and the empty pleasure and fulfillment he promises obtained through sin? Do we really believe God is our Father, the Creator of all? Does Christ's story sometimes seem more like a myth, or the Holy Spirit a fairy tale to us? Do we really believe in the full forgiveness of all sin through the sacrament of Reconciliation? Allow these promises to challenge us. Today, let us reflect on our Baptismal Promises that we made on our own at Confirmation and will renew at Easter.