Word to the Wise
Saturday, August 7, 2021 - Saturday in the 18th Week in Ordinary Time
[Deut 6:4-13 and Matt 17:14-20]"Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone! Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength." [Deuteronomy]
To Christians, the words from Deuteronomy, quoted above, are familiar because Jesus quotes them as the first and greatest commandment, with love of neighbor being next. For a Jew, the words are the fundamental prayer morning and evening of any pious Jew. The words are traditionally referred to as the "Shema Prayer" from the Hebrew verb, "Hear!" The single-minded monotheism of the Jews was one of the greatest forces in keeping them from being wiped out by surrounding cultures. Indeed, Deuteronomy represents a renewal movement at the time it was written. Foreigh deities found their way into Jewish practice from time to time, and it took a determined effort on the part of the great prophets (and occasionally by a king like Josiah) to remind Israel of their infidelity and push them back to the true and only God. It is in applying the words of the Shema Prayer to Jesus that we fundamentally divide from our Jewish brothers and sisters.
Christians can benefit from reciting the Shema Prayer as a reminder that "foreign deities" can creep in from our surrounding culture: sex, money, substances, power, possessions. Without realizing it we may find ourselves "worshipping" these elements and making them first in our life. The Shema Prayer can also remind us of Jesus' statement that love of God involves love of neighbor if only because we would habitually recite the words and then say, "and love our neighbor as ourselves."
When it was written, the Book of Deuteronomy was intended to be an instrument of reform and renewal for an entire nation. It can still be that, but also serve each of us as a reminder of what God has done for us and the worship we owe to God alone. AMEN