“Thank You” as the Meaning of God’s Commandments
Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8; James 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27; Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
We, Christians, believe that creation is an act of love, God’s love. We do believe also that redemption of what God created is a greater act of love. For us, therefore, “love” goes beyond a four-lettered-word, it is an action, a deed that touches someone and something: there is no law involved, it comes naturally as grace and blessing! God steps outside of himself to create, he was not satisfied with keeping goodness to himself, he reaches out of himself as goodness and blessing – “God saw that everything he created was good, and he blessed it.” When evil attempted to disfigure the beauty of God’s creation, God sent his Son into the world, so that the world might be saved through him (John 3:16-17). It takes sacrifice, sometimes multiple sacrifices, to show love and goodness – it is a daily dying to oneself in order to live for God and the other. Do human beings actually imitate God in this act of dying to restore other human beings to life? Do we reach out to sisters, brothers and creation in need of redemption?
It may be surprising why our first reading this Sunday starts out with a talk on commandments, as if we do not have enough rules and regulations already; by the way, who keeps them, so why multiply the numbers? Putting our first reading in perspective helps the understanding of today’s message – signs of gratitude, NOT commandments. The commandments of which Moses mediated between God and the Israelites was not meant to create a police state or to impede the freedom and liberty of the children of God, NO! The commandments of today’s first reading are the “thank you” message of the Israelites to God for delivering them from servitude and slavery in Egypt. Just as independent nations of the world define the parameters of their identity and nationhood through constitutions and laws, Israel enters into an alliance with God – they became God’s people, their new identity. They recognized the goodness of God to them made manifest in the powerful miracles he worked before Pharaoh and themselves, as the prelude to their liberation from Egypt, so they promised to be God’s own people; the sign of that agreement are the commandments of God – Israel’s sign of gratitude to God.
Given the broken vows and promises that our media outlets fling up in our faces today, each one of us must ask for the reasons to renew her/his trust in the power of God to restore sanity and fidelity to his Church. If the readings of today are any help, fidelity to God comes from our gratitudes to God for the blessings we receive daily from him. One can never over emphasize the importance of the show of gratitude because they provide the basis for keeping God’s commandments. Our first reading claims that the commandments of God are search-lights for the road and journey ahead – the Christian life; if Israel wanted to attain its destination, then the keeping of the commandments is one sure guarantee: “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” (4:1).
The commandments of God are identity marker for Israel, likewise for Christians; failure to keep God’s commandments is tantamount to loosing one’s citizenship and identity as his child. It is neither TRADITION that marks one out as a child of God nor the country of which one belongs but the keeping of God’s commandments and the destiny they lead one to – God himself! At its origin, the washing of hands and cups, etc. references the cleanliness and holiness required prior to entering the presence of God. For instance, Moses had to take off his shoes because he was standing on a holy ground (Exodus 3:5). The same gestures of holiness and cleanliness became signs of segregation – I am holier than thou! The Jews thought themselves more righteous than the rest of humanity, so their ablution became cleansing of contamination from contacts with non-Jews. Yet, God requires holiness and cleanliness from each one of us today, if we must be his children. Our cleansing must be from sin and crimes against God and the defenseless of our time – minors and vulnerable adults.
In today’s gospel, Jesus takes us back to the Old Testament, he quotes the prophecy of Isaiah to illustrate the problem with the bad practice of religion – “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts”. The issue revolves around the meaning of “honor,” “lips worship” and “human precepts”. It is trendy to ask what is the meaning of “honor” when we hear the saga of Donald Trump versus John McCain on the meaning of “honor” due heroes; “lips worship” epitomizes the George H. W. Bush’s “read my lips,” and “human precepts” find pride of place in the democratic precepts of today, no thanks to judicial precedents! Human traditions indeed: when you want to abort babies, Roe versus Wade allows you to do that or parliamentary/statutory law, with no regard for the beauty and goodness of the human person. When you need to lie and deceive the electorates, democratic lobbying supports your position, not minding who dies in the process. Human Right Laws allow you freedom of religion, associations and gender fabrication. Yes, you’re allowed to be heartless, after all you have no heart!
The “heart” is the dwelling place of God, and one is heartless without God! According to St. Augustine, “our hearts are restless, until they rest in you”! This is biblical when we listen to Samuel versus God: “But the Lord said unto Samuel, look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord sees not as man sees; for man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). “Honor” and “worship” are the consequences of the recognition that one is a beneficiary of some good deeds. It is on the grounds of the recognition of God’s beneficence that honor and worship are given to him. I accept God’s laws to guide my life because I admit that I didn’t create myself! The lips are connected to the brain as rational/reasoning faculty, but the heart is attached to action, good deeds that reflect the presence of God in a person. It is what you do that defines you, not what you say – “by their fruit, you shall know them” (Matthew 7:16).
The legitimization of the culture of ingratitude is what our readings are against, others may call it lawlessness. We need to change the traditions that fail to honor God and worship him because he is the begin and the end of our existence (Revelation 22:13). The culture of death – for that is the name of every culture that doesn’t promote life – that is practiced in the name of God must be toppled. Jesus himself puts forward the accusation, “You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.”
Is it not true that all our cultures do is “to manufacture consent,” especially the liberal democratic cultures? That to understand happenings around us we need to pay attention to “Dēmos-kratia” – the power or the rule of the people, the people set the agenda for what happens and for what is right or wrong? When the media and the politicians agree, their coalition is unstoppable because their agendas become gospel truth and sacrosanct. With social media, new consensus unfurl daily, not to talk of new conspiracies. Political parties lie to one another and the masses are at the mercy of their decisions. Churches and mosques have become ideological selling grounds, and the destiny of the human soul is up for destruction at such edifices. How do you cry foul when you legalize same sex unions and promote concubinage, fornication, masturbation and adultery in the name of freedom and sex education? You hijack parental control over children and you make it children’s right to become irresponsible!
It is the culture of “gratitude” for the blessings of God upon the good, the bad and the ugly that makes laws fascinating. When we realized that we have been blessed by God, then his commandments make sense to us because we see the need to say “thank you”. When commandments are seen as a usurpation of our rights and freedoms, then the eleventh commandment comes into effect – “Thou shall not be caught”. Yes, the love of God’s commandments, as a sign of gratitude to God, makes us help those in need of assistance, whether they be poor, sick, migrants, etc. Our acknowledgement of being recipients of divine and human help push us to help others; by so doing, the commandments of God become easy to practice; they bring the best out of us, the divine in us becomes manifest to all and sundry because we become like God – good people!
Perhaps one needs to grow up in a failed economy, failed democracy and failed judicial system in order to appreciate the importance of thanksgiving and gratitude for the rule of law. After experiencing going to bed hungry because the treasury has been looted by a few; having one’s eyes wide open all through the night for fear of extremists and assassins; where academic degrees are just pieces of paper because jobs are reserved for one’s cronies and not for those qualified for them. Failed parenthood too can be just as costly! Seniors with fat bank accounts but with no human company because they spent their lives chasing after money and had no time for family life. Science and technology worry about the economic importance of their inventions and not their impacts on the human person and the society. Fortunately, it is not about what I like, but what God has commanded; it is not what suits us, but we must seek what brings glory to others and God – there is somebody and cause greater than you and me to be sought after!
How ingenious: the human race is classified alongside the animal kingdom as a pretext and permission to be animalistic; yet, animals have their packs, looking after their own kind, but the human race kills and destroys its own kind! The human race dies for lack of replacement because pregnancies and childbearing are modern day diseases; human life has no more value because healthcare is very expensive, so seniors and the sick can be dispensed with, after all they can neither make money no participate in the democratic process; immigrants are viruses to be eliminated because their lives are valueless! Despite these human attitudes, our second reading teaches us that, “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” (James 1:27).
Just open your eyes and see how we live our lives these days, and see whether God lives deep within us and inspires the thoughts and actions of our hearts: “From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile.” Every heart the exudes sins and desire for sin, is an ingrate heart, incapable of appreciating love and blessing and showing same to those in need of love and compassion! Yes, it is in dying to self that we can live for others. One of our acclamations says it all: “dying you destroyed our death, rising you restored our life”. It is by imitating Jesus Christ in dying for the restoration of the other that the beauty of God’s commandments comes across vividly to us and the world. It is then that we realize that all good things come from God, and we need to extend God’s goodness to others as well. Only then can God dwell in our hearts, then there will be no more place for evil machinations in our hearts.
Assignment for the Week:
Could you choose a virtue that shows God’s goodness to your neighbor to practice for this week?