Word to the Wise
Tuesday, July 28, 2015 - Tuesday in the 17th Week in Ordinary Time
[Exod 33:7-11; 34:5b-9, 28 and Matt 13:36-43]The Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as one man speaks to another. [Exodus]
Scripture scholars have long noted that the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament that are also known as the Torah) seems to be the product of a master story-teller, or more than one, that has taken several traditions and woven them into one like the strands of a rope. There is a broad narrative but it contains different versions of the same story woven together. Moses' relationship to God, as noted in the quote above, sometimes has him speaking to God and God to him as if in an ordinary human conversation. Other passages have God telling Moses that he (Moses) cannot see God's face. These differences reflect traditions that developed from different attitudes about the sacredness and unapproachibility of God. Eventually, with the development of the temple once the Israelites stopped wandering and settled in the promised land, God's utter sacredness could be approached only by the High Priest.
I mention all this because our own religious attitudes are impacted or at least resemble this same development. There are varying degrees in what is considered sacred and almost unapproachable. Certainly we consider the consecrated host to be sacred. This is why some folks think that receiving communion in the hand is disrespectful. Why the hand is less respectful than the tongue is one of those cultural things that shape our notion of sacredness. All our senses are involved. For some, incense, candles, stained glass, gorgeous vestments and other physical elements are part of creating a sense of the sacred. For others, it is only when all of those things are stripped away that one comes face to face with God. These two "streams" are broad, but I think most of us would find ourselves somewhere in between. Liturgy and devotions are part of our conversation with God, and while we may all speak the same language in this regard, we certainly do not use the same words! AMEN
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