Word to the Wise
Saturday, March 3, 2007 - Saturday of the First Week of Lent
[Deuteronomy 26:16-19 and Matthew 5:43-48]This day the Lord, your God, commands you to observe this statues and decress. 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.
The Book of Deuteronomy represents a "rediscovery" or "renewal" or "reform" in Judaism at the time it was written. There is an emphasis on the reality of the covenant with God and the spirit of that covenant, and not just on the rules and regulations. The whole boook is like a long sermon on the necessity of identifying with and interiorizing the covenant. As the passage says a little further: "You are to be a people peculiarly his own...." This idea of being "chosen" is one of the things that has sustained Judaism through some horrible times, including the Holocaust and other systematic persecutions. The covenant is the sign of that "chosen-ness" and takes on a moral and theological significance almost like that of Islam and the Koran. Although we Christians have the Bible which we consider to be the Word of God in human words, our covenant is expressed in the life and actions of Jesus. St. Thomas Aquinas speaks of the "New Law" of Christ which is "nothing other than the Holy Spirit working in our hearts through faith in Christ." (ST I-II, q.106). It is true that we have the scriptures, tradition, canon law, the catechism, and magisterial teachings - but they are not the covenant. The covenant is a relationship with Christ. The other things are designed to help us develop that relationship in the context of a global Christian church. Even there, we must remember that it is not the "church" that we worship, but Christ. This must be our focus. Lent offers us a chance at re-focusing and perhaps discovering the usefulness of all the other helps that we have. AMEN
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