Word to the Wise
Thursday, August 9, 2012 - Thursday in the 18th Week in Ordinary Time
[Jer 31:31-34 and Matt 16:13-23]But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer will they have need to teach their friends and relatives how to know the Lord. All, from least to greatest, shall know me, says the Lord, for I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more.
At one time in my life as a Dominican, I was asked to serve as Novice Master for our Southern Dominican Province. Anyone who enters a religious order must go through the experience of the novitiate - a kind of spiritual boot camp! That made me the "drill instructor," although it's not quite as regimented as the military. At the same time, a new member is introduced to a structured way of living in community and this requires quite a bit of "adjustment!" One of the things that I had to discern in regard to the novices concerned the way they "adjusted." Was a particular brother simply "following the rules and regulations," or was he truly "internalizing" the ideals and identity of being Dominican, a member of the Order of Preachers! If the Order were simply an organization that he joined which would "take care of him" for the rest of his life in return for his doing a particular ministerial job, it is doubtful that he would be able to sustain a lifetime commitment. The novice brother who "internalized" the life of the Order (wrote it on his heart) would take on the identity of a Dominican, and not simply the externals - habit, observances, etc.. This brother would be truly Dominican.
The covenant Jeremiah speaks of in today's first scripture is like this. It would not be simply a written law or set of regulations to be followed, but a whole way of faith and living that transcends the written description of it. This is why the Lord tells Jeremiah that no longer would the covenant have to be "taught." It would be literally a part of every individual! St. Thomas Aquinas speaks of the "new law" of Christ as "the Holy Spirit working in our hearts through faith in Christ." We must do more than "wear the company outfit and sing the company song." We must BE what we wear and sing! The strength of our covenant comes from its presence inside the person and not just from outside observance. Another word for this is "integrity." Does our "outside" match our "inside?" It's a lifetime process, but the Holy Spirit will be there to help us through it. AMEN