15th Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 10, 1983
Deut 30: 10-14
Salesian Sisters, No. Haledon, N.J.
This morning I preached (at St. Vincent's Hospital in Harrison, N.Y., without written text--on the parable of the Good Samaritan). Here's a 30-year-old homily on the 1st reading of the day.
“This
commandment which I command you this day is not too hard for you, neither is it
far off. The word is very near you; it
is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it” (Deut 30: 11, 14).
This
passage from Deuteronomy appears to be a late addition to the book of the Law,
perhaps associated with covenant renewal during the Exile. It stresses God’s closeness to us.
God
is close to us in his commandments, that is, the whole law that Moses has laid
before the people, the law that he capsulizes as “turning to YHWH your God with
all your heart and all your soul” (30:10).
God
is close to us, not just to Moses and the Israelites whom he led to the
Promised Land. God comes close to each
succeeding generation of his people: “This commandment which I command you this day” applies to any covenant
renewal during the Babylonian Exile, the restoration to Judea, the time of
Christ, or the present. God is always the present. God’s command is always close to us, in our
mouths and in our hearts.
“This
commandment…is not too hard for you. The
word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can
do it.” God’s law is a natural part of
us. We feel it deep within us. Revelation only enhances it, highlights it.
I
don’t suppose any of you have seen the Star Wars trilogy, the 3d part of which
is the current smash, Return of the Jedi. All 3 films are good, old-fashioned flicks in
which plainly identifiable good guys and a pretty princess contend against
plainly identifiable villains in the name of freedom. But in the latest film, the struggle, the
confrontation, goes beyond laser beams and high speed battles, into the deepest
parts of the handsome hero and the arch villain—not only in the words of their
mouths as they try to convert each other, one to the goodness of the Force, the
other to the Dark Side, but in their hearts and minds. The tension heightens when Darth Vader brings
Luke before the evil emperor. We become
thoroughly involved in Luke’s struggle to resist the power of the Dark Side
within himself, to remain true to his ideals.
The
struggle, the confrontation, between good and evil takes place within Luke
Skywalker, Darth Vader, and Everyman. God’s
word is in our mouths and in our hearts so that we can do it; it’s not too hard
for us. It’s not something externally
imposed but something deep inside us. We
know it instinctively. As Christians, we
have the Force of the Holy Spirit, who dwells within us and makes us closer to
God.
God
is close to us, even in the temptations that form part of the pattern of our
lives. The temptations usually come from
our Dark Side, from within our weak, hurt, or corrupt hearts—“What comes out of
a man is what defiles a man. For from
within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, fornication, theft,
murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander,
pride, foolishness” (Mark 7:21-22).
Yet
we are created in God’s image. His goodness
is likewise rooted in our hearts.
Tertullian has said that the soul is naturally Christian. We all have an instinct for goodness, beauty,
and truth. No matter how intense our
personal struggles, then, the commandment which YHWH commands this day is not hard
for us, neither is it far off. We were
formed in his love. We are saved by his
grace. Like Jesus, while we are on our
way up to the Holy City, we must engage the enemy in combat. But the Father is with us, deep within us by
his Holy Spirit. His word is very near
us, nearer than we are to ourselves, so that we can love him with all our
hearts and all our souls.
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