Message from Fr. James - September 27, 2026

Our New and Eternal Covenant

Dear St. Martin’s Parishioners,

God saves us through covenants. A covenant is a relationship that changes everything in life. It is not an exchange of goods or services, like a contract. It is an exchange of persons. Each person belongs to the other. Covenants are such powerful relationships that God used covenants to save us throughout history

Fr. Dave decided that our Giving Tuesday 2025 fundraiser would create an art gallery of God’s covenants. From Sacred Scripture, we chose to paint eight covenants between God and us. The story of our salvation is made in God’s covenants with Adam, Eve, Noah, Abraham, Moses, the twelve tribes of Israel, King David, and, finally, the new and eternal covenant with Jesus Christ. Each of these covenants changes everything about your life. The painting of the eighth covenant, through, with, and in Jesus Christ, is now hanging in the parish hall.

“The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah… I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people… I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more” (Jeremiah 31:31-34). This is what Jesus did! “While they were eating, Jesus took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and giving it to his disciples said, ‘Take and eat; this is my body.’ Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins.’” (Matthew 26:26-28).

The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life. All of the covenants from Adam up to David lead to the Eucharist. The Eucharist leads each of us to live a new life. God is our God, and we are his people! All of the sacraments we celebrate here in St. Martin’s show the way that we live as people of God. The marriage covenant between one man and one woman shows how God can take two sinners and turn them into husband and wife and use their lives as a symbol of the love between Christ and the Church (Ephesians 5).

A change happens here at St. Martin’s. Man and woman become husband and wife. Babies become Christians at Baptism. Sins become a thing of the past in Confession. Wine becomes blood in the Eucharist. Jesus makes all things new (Revelation 21:5). When you give yourself to God, God gives himself to you and makes you a new creation. He will never abandon or forsake you. He loves you and you are his, in this new and eternal covenant.

In Christ,

Fr. James