Today's Thoughts...

​Today’s Thoughts: Sometimes we see laws, rules and commands as unnecessary. Sometimes we think they are burdensome. At times we look for ways around them or think, what is the least we need to do to follow them. Take going to mass as an example, people have asked me; “What parts of the mass do they need to be there for in order to fulfill their obligation?” Well, as I was growing up it was often said you had to be there before the Gospel and stay until Communion was given out. Certainly, if you go to church on Sunday you can see the people who observe the law, the rule of going to mass in this way, they show up just before the Gospel and they are out the door at Communion. The letter of the law!
 
However, I do not think that is what Moses and Jesus are speaking about today. They are talking about living a life of faith, living a relationship with God that does not seek to do the minimum. It seeks to live the maximum. Moses tells the people to live their relationship with God and pass that living on. Jesus tells the people he has come to live his relationship with God, to be an example to the fullest extent of this relationship.
 
Often people ask what they can do to get their adult children to return to their faith. How can they get them to live a life of faith? My answer to them is to pray for and love their children and grandchildren, but most importantly to live their faith. The best way to make God present to people is by living out our relationship with God as authentically as we can, no short cuts! If we are fully invested, if we live out our relationship with God each day, we become an example; we pass on the gift sometimes not even knowing that we do.
 
In the Book of Deuteronomy from which our first reading comes today, Moses and later Jesus who often quoted Deuteronomy use the word today. The law is not about something given or established long ago. Moses and Jesus are saying it is about today, this moment. It is today, it is this moment of life that we live our relationship with God to the fullest!
 
Yes, rules, laws, regulations, commands can be bothersome, they can place us in opposition to culture and society. They can seem hard to live out. They can frustrate us. But in living by the rules, in being faithful to our relationship with God we keep the story alive. We enhance the community of faith. We bring the gift of God's presence to all we meet. We pass on our faith - today!
 
Have a blessed and holy Wednesday everyone!