What does a spirituality of the covenant look like today, especially in the light of the phenomenon of globalization (cf. nos. 36-60 of the USG document)? Religious institutes such as the Adorers of the Blood of Christ, which are at once local and transnational, reflect in a special way the catholicity of the Church in the face of globalization. That means a capacity to acknowledge and affirm difference without compromising unity. It is a commitment to inclusion and not leaving peoples behind, especially the poor, because of the rapid forces of globalization.

I would like to reflect on three aspects of a contemporary spirituality of the covenant: commitment, connection, and communion. These three ideas help us face globalization with the resources of our spirituality.

Covenant as a Commitment to Life

A theme which Pope John Paul II has made central to the past ten years of his pontificate has been a commitment to the sanctity of life. Especially in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae he has meditated upon life as a gift from God, and as the basis of the dignity of the human person. That meditation begins with the story of Abel, whose blood cried out from earth. Evangelium Vitae contains the Pope's most profound meditation on the Blood of Christ.

The theme of life certainly resounds through all the biblical stories of the covenant. Covenants always promise new life, new well-being. In the face of globalization, when the life of the poor, especially poor women and children, is cheapened, a spirituality of the covenant can provide prophetic witness against those who would reduce the dignity of human life to the capacity to produce and to consume. When people are subordinated to economic processes, human dignity is not maintained. A covenant spirituality looks out especially for those whose lives are diminished or threatened by globalization.

Covenant is about life. It is also about commitment itself, a commitment which does not waver or disappear at the first sign of adversity. For the wealthier parts of the world which have benefited most from globalization, commitment has experienced a diminishment. To stay too long committed to one person or relationship is read as foregoing new possibilities which might prove more beneficial or more pleasurable. In cultures with a wealth of options, it becomes harder to convince people of the value of commitment as a value in itself.
A spirituality of covenant includes a sense of commitment, grounded in the commitment God makes to us in offering us a covenant. Constant innovation may produce for some a better life, but it cannot be at the cost of those enduring values which make human life worthwhile.

The spirituality of covenant is about even more than embracing the value of commitment. It is about what we commit ourselves to, to whom we are committed, both as individuals and as a religious institute such as the Adorers of the Blood of Christ. Where do our commitments lie, especially in the midst of the changes which globalization is bringing about in our world. The days of this symposium will be a good time to examine those commitments and what they entail for us.

Covenant as Connection

Covenant is about connection, about relationships. In our discussion of the covenant God made with the Hebrew slaves in the desert (Ex 24), we spoke of the importance of belonging. We have all experienced at one time or another how uncomfortable it is to come into a situation and to be made not to feel to belong. If we find ourselves marginalized on a regular basis, that feeling of not belonging wears down our souls, and erodes our capacity to love and to trust.

One of the profound experiences of the poor in a globalized world is that of exclusion, of being made to feel that they do not belong. Exclusion has become one of the defining characteristics of globalization in the poor countries of the world today. They are simply being left behind. Women in both rich and poor societies experience marginalization by men and by the structures of society. A characteristic of a covenant spirituality is inclusion, not exclusion, of being special because we all are made in the image of God.
Secondly, a spirituality of the covenant is about identifying the wrong or bad connections in our world. These are relationships in our lives which are death-dealing and destructive, rather than life-giving. In wealthy societies, the plethora of choices and the possibilities offered to us can lead to fleeing into addictive behaviors and addictive relations--fleeing into alcohol, drugs, promiscuous sex, and overwork. A spirituality of the blood of Christ is a spirituality committed to life, and this spirituality is evident in our sense of covenant.

Third and finally, a spirituality focused on connections is a spirituality committed to the work of reconciliation. In a much fragmented world, be it in families in wealthy societies, or the experience of dislocation among the poor, humanity cries out for the healing grace of God's reconciling touch. The alienated, the separated, the lost in our midst need to be brought near in the Blood of Christ (cf. Eph 2:12ff.); the two need to be made one again.

Put simply, covenant as connection means that we must go to the heart of all our relationships. How are they rooted, ultimately, in our fundamental relation with God? Are they a source of life and hope for us? Or do they keep us in a bondage which is not life-giving? Does the quality of community life as ASCs give us strength, deepen us in love, and fill us with hope as a covenant people?

Covenant as Communion

"Communion" has been a key theological concept to describe the mystery of the Church since the Extraordinary Synod of 1985. It is a concept redolent with many meanings. I wish to touch on only a few of the meanings here with regard to covenant.
The idea of covenant itself, first of all, is intended to end in communion. That is to say, the goal of covenant is communion with God, of being united to God in a way which we can now only dimly imagine. Our potential communion with God is rooted in the communion within God, in the Holy Trinity, that communion of Father, Son and Spirit. Our own experience of covenant reaches its highest possible fulfillment in our entering into that communion with God.

Covenant and communion are related in a second way. As Pope John Paul has noted in Novo Millennio Ineunte, communion does not mean the disappearance of difference (cf. no. 43). Difference should not be made an absolute category, but difference does have a place in God's plan. It is a reflection of the fullness of creation. In that apostolic letter, the Holy Father notes the importance of "making room for one another," that is, of experiencing difference as a gift. It is a sign of the abundance of life. Covenant does not mean the erasure of difference, but a celebration of the variety of God's creation.

In the sociocultural sphere, globalization often means homogenization, the erasure of local difference by the icons of global entertainment and consumption. Part of a spirituality of the covenant is keeping faith with the local, with those who are made to feel different. It is not siding with the popular and the powerful, but embracing all of God's creation as it has been given to us.
Third, covenant is about hope. One of the aspects we saw in the biblical development of covenant is that the covenant's promise always gave hope of something new, something barely imaginable at the present time and within present suffering. Hope is how God draws us out of suffering into the future. to live the spirituality of covenant as hope, we must be in touch with the wounds of the people with whom we walk, and try to imagine what God has in store for those same people as they walk in faith. Many of the poor bear the burdens of globalization without experiencing its benefits. Hope may be what keeps them going. As we walk with them, we too must discern the glimmerings of hope on the horizon.

Fourth, covenant for us dedicated to a spirituality of the Blood of Christ finds special expression in the phrase in I Cor 10:16: "the cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ?" At the heart of that sharing is the sense of participation, of being part of what is happening. in a globalized world, where individuals and communities experience the onrush of globalizing forces as the loss of autonomy and control over their own lives, to be able to participate--to have a say--is part of the experience of being human. Our cup of blessing that sharing in the Blood of Christ--sharing in the suffering, sharing in the hope of the heavenly banquet.

Conclusion

To live a covenant spirituality in the face of globalization is to live boldly. Bold living does not shrink from engaging in the experience of suffering, which is the lot of so much of our world. We engage in the suffering of the world not out of a presumption of our strength but out of the love Christ showed forth in the pouring out of his blood on the cross.
A spirituality of the covenant is also bold in its hope and confidence into the transforming power of God's love. Where God's love is leading us, we can now only vaguely imagine. It will certainly be to a new place. As we stand now with those who suffer and those who hope, we must try to give an account of the things we hope for, as the Letter to the Hebrews admonishes us. Covenant gives us strength in suffering, and assurance in hope. it does not forget our suffering, but transfigures it, as the wounds of the Risen Christ were transfigured. It lures us on to that fullness to be found only in the Reign of God, when God will be all in all.

Robert Schreiter, C.PP.S.
-- Excerpt from a paper delivered at the ASC International Symposium
Newman University, June 25-26, 2002

FOR REFLECTION

1. What has been your experience of globalization? Its positive aspects? Its negative aspects?
2. When have you experienced brokenness in your life and when did you discover new hope?
3. Explore one of the themes of a covenant spirituality--commitment, connection, communion--in your life.