God's Decrees Give Life

08-29-2021Weekly ReflectionFr. Anthony Okolo, C.S.Sp

Moses in the first reading of today prepares for his final departure as the Israelites are about to enter the Promised Land. Knowing that his death is at sight he gives his final farewell message to the people. The message is anchored on the commandments, God has given them as a people and he encourages them not to remove or add anything to that law. He reiterates that this law is a special gift that reveals God’s closeness to the people of Israel, it also had to be guarded and preserved just as it was revealed. This is why he warns them not to add or remove anything from the law because it is sacred and meant to be a guiding light for them. The observance of this word of God would keep them alive, as they enter to take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of their fathers is giving them.

These laws are God's words which were given to them through Moses. These decrees and statuses are meant to give and sustain their lives. John's Gospel 6:63 says, that God's words are spirit and they are life. That is why Moses tells them that keeping God's words will bring them blessings because God's words are not human words, but are spirit and life. To observe these words means to accept God's word as something that gives meaning to our life. Take for instance how a car manual by the car manufacturer is meant to guide you on how to take care of your car to prolong the life of your car. When one observes and follows the instructions in that manual it is meant to aid in the protection of the life of the car. Most often we follow the instructions in the manual because we want to maintain our cars. But God’s words are divine and much higher than the car manual. However, we need God’s grace always to be able to keep to His laws and decrees because left to our own powers alone we may not do much. The good news is that, observing them brings peace and serenity to our troubled soul. Again, keeping to His commandments manifests our love to Him as our Lord in whom we depend.

The Gospel presents us with the tension between Jewish converts whose faith was nourished in Judaism and the Gentile Christians who never had such background experience of the tradition. For the Gentile converts all those traditions meant nothing while it means a lot for the Jewish convert. It is on the bases of this that we understand today’s Gospel reading. Jesus is not advocating that the tradition should be abolished but makes the case that mere external observance should not replace the real essence of the law. He goes further to emphasis the point that a pure and clean heart is far better than external cleanliness. Traditions are necessary for the identity of any group “Traditions are tenacious and important, but they are not absolute, and their value can be questioned. Traditions springs from a particular history. They nourish a community’s ideas and they in turn are nourished by those ideals. When a life context that inspired a set of traditions dies or is drastically altered, traditions it once sustained become lifeless and meaningless. That does not mean they are immediately abandoned.”

Wishing you all a blessed Sunday and praying God will continue to manifest his love upon all your families.

Fr. Tony Okolo