“Now, Israel, hear the statutes and decrees
which I am teaching you to observe, that you may live, and may enter in and
take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving
you.”
At
the start of the reflection that we make of the Sunday readings, the
exhortation of Moses to the people of Israel brings us to the heart of the
covenant that is established between the Lord and his people. The giving of the
Law by God to his people is that which seals this special relationship; from being
“no-people”, Israel becomes God’s special portion among the nations. The Law
becomes that which defines the life and identity of Israel, and regulates the
life of the people not only as a nation, but also as individual persons. For
Israel, it is the supreme expression of God’s will, and the condition for the
people if they want to receive to the full the blessings that are fruit of
their special relationship with God. Faithful observance of the Law of the Lord,
given to the people through Moses, is manifestation of wisdom and pledge of
God’s favor.
Considering
this, it would be understandable why Israel was so keen in trying to obey and
absorb this expression of the divine will. The law of God, expressed in a
precise manner in the Ten Commandments, has been imprinted in man’s heart and
in his nature by his Creator. In order to be more faithful to Law, the
Israelites further formulated provisions and traditions that were designed to
make its observance more amenable, in order to insert it more in the daily life
of each individual person. These human traditions, and the clauses that came
from the fundamental expression of God’s law (the Ten Commandments), were
supposed to aid man in living the will of God in a more profound way; as
signposts, they were supposed to guide man how to live according to the spirit
of the law, and to express in his life that which lies at its heart: to love the Lord with one’s whole being,
and to love neighbor as oneself.
But
just as any instrument could be used wrongly, human traditions and further
elaborations of the law could also divert us from living what the Law actually
enjoins us to do. In the Gospel we see the Lord Jesus finding fault in the
example of the Pharisees, who had placed so much importance in the mere
observance of the Law. Applying to them the words of the prophet Isaiah, he
qualifies the worship that they give to the Lord as vain and false, in teaching
as doctrines mere human precepts. By focusing so much on external trappings and
provisions of the law, they have lost sight of the real meaning of worship. He
points out that true worship starts from within a man’s heart, just as it is
from the depths of the person that abominations rise: “Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the
things that come out from within are what defile”.
Be
careful to note that the Lord Jesus does not pour scorn on human traditions and
the interpretation of the law; it is rather that these traditions—which have
risen from the desire to be able to follow God’s law and thus live it more
meaningfully in our loves—have diverted man from the true meaning of fidelity
to the divine commandments. To love God
with one’s whole being and to love neighbor as oneself: this is that which
constitutes the heart of the law, and that which lies at the root of all human
tradition. The Word of God enjoins us to look at our own way of living out
the commandments of God, how we apply these into our lives, and to rectify our
intention wherever it is lacking.
Rectifying
our intention in living the law of God (who is love) means welcoming this law,
this word that comes from God. The Apostle St. James, in the Second Reading,
explains that humbly welcoming the word means not limiting ourselves to listen
to it, but rather to become doers of the word as well. Living according to the commandments (which have Charity at its heart)
does not only mean living in a way that would be pleasing to God, by living
good, moral lives; but living a life that is characterize for a genuine love of
neighbor, especially for those who are needful of our help: “Religion that is pure and undefiled before
God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction
and to keep oneself unstained by the world”. (from the Second Reading
according to the letter of James). To
love our neighbor—especially the poor—in an authentic way is to desire that
which is TRULY good for them, not merely that which is apparently good.
This is most especially true in our society, wherein we try to find solutions
in order to alleviate the suffering of the poor and our people at large.
We—along with our lawmakers and leaders—should come up with solutions that are
would truly help raise the standard of life in our society, with laws that keep
in mind the deepest truths about the human person and his dignity, and are in
line with the divine law, which is the only absolute law on earth. We should
not be swayed by solutions that have the appearance of good, ones that would
only bring about positive results that are immediate but not long-lasting, ones
that would in the end would lead us to more ruin than betterment of life.
Our
reflection of the Gospel should also allow us to examine ourselves as
Catholics—children of the Father, disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ and the
Church enlivened by the Holy Spirit—in the way we live our lives. Let us ask
ourselves sincerely if we are really living the law of God, expressed in the
Gospels and taught by the teaching authority of the Church; or according to a
moral law that we have merely made up for ourselves just to make us more
comfortable. Let us examine our
traditions and devotions, rectifying them and purifying them if they lead us
away from the true love of God and neighbor. May our lives be patterned
after the love of Jesus Christ, who was obedient to his loving Father and who
loved man so much as to give his life for him and take it back so that man
might live; may it be patterned after the love of the Virgin Mary and that of
the saints, who serve as our models in the struggle to live this authentic love
for God and neighbor. AMEN.
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