Word to the Wise
Saturday, August 9, 2025 - 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. Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today. Drill them into your children. Speak of them at home and abroad, whether you are busy or at rest. Bind them at your wrist as a sign and let them be as a pendant on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your houses and your gates." [Deuteronomy]
AUGUST 9 [St. Edith Stein - a/k/a Teresa Benedicta]
[Deuteronomy 6:4-13 and Matthew 17:14-20]
Jesus refers to these words as the first of the two greatest commandments of the Mosaic Law. They comprise the fundamental statement of faith of a Jew - the "Shema" prayer. Some devout Jews wear them daily, written on a tiny scroll in a case, the same way we Catholics might wear a religious medal. I remember seeing one for the first time as a freshman student at Tulane, worn by one of my Jewish friends in the dorm. Devout Jewish homes may have this little case - a "mezuzah" - attached to the door frame of their front door. If we Catholics pray one of the traditional "creeds" [Nicene, Apostles, Athanasian, Paul VI], Jews would consider the "Shema" to be theirs.
It should be noted that the "shema prayer" is basically the first of the Ten Commandments. Along with the precept from Leviticus 19:9-18 - "You shall love your neighbor as yourself..." we are given a whole way of life. Jesus tells more than one person in the gospel that if they follow these two precepts, they will be righteous in the sight of God. For Christians, Jesus is the subject, fulfillment and goal of those two precepts. They are two sides of the same coin, but current events show that the second of the two commandments is often forgotten. We cannot love God and hate our neighbor at the same time and consider ourselves to be good Christians. A poster I once had sums it up well: "If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?" AMEN