MESSAGE FROM FR. JAMES - March 15, 2026

God’s covenant of life and freedom with Adam

Dear St. Martin’s Parishioners,

God saves us through covenants. A covenant is a relationship. It is a relationship in which persons belong fully to one another. It is a relationship of mutual love and freedom. Covenants have conditions in order to maintain the unity of the relationship. Covenants have consequences if the relationship is betrayed. God used covenants to save us throughout history because covenants are such powerful relationships.

Fr. Dave announced that our Giving Tuesday 2025 project would create an art gallery of God’s covenants. From Sacred Scripture, we chose to paint eight covenants between God and us. The history of our salvation is made in God’s covenants with Adam, Eve, Noah, Abraham, Moses, the tribes of Israel, King David, and, finally, the new and eternal covenant with Jesus Christ. Each of these covenants promised a relationship between God and humankind. Each one expresses God’s love for you. Each covenant saves you from death and sin. The painting of the first covenant, with Adam, is now hanging in the parish hall below the church.

“The Lord God then took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it. The Lord God gave man this order: ‘You are free to eat from any of the trees of the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. From that tree you shall not eat; the moment you eat from it you are surely doomed to die” (Genesis 2:15-17). God, eternally, in himself, has life and freedom. In this covenant, he gives these to Adam and to you. God gives life and free will to Adam, to you, and to every human person.

This is represented in the sunrise. The sunrise over paradise gives light and life to the plants, animals, and to Adam. The huge horizon represents the awesome panorama of freedom given to Adam. Why is Adam black? Because Adam represents you. Each one of us can see our identity in Adam. God made this covenant with Adam and with you. Even though Adam committed the original sin, God never took back his gift of life and freedom. We now have to live with the burden of sin and death, but in your life, you can go and see the same sunrise and reach for the same horizon that God gave to Adam. See the beauty of God’s goodness. He keeps his covenant with us. Truly, from the creation of the world, God loved you.

In Christ,

Fr. James Fangmeyer