Friday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
July 28, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/072823.cfm

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Moses with the Ten Commandments – Rembrandt

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Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we are presented with a summary version the Ten Commandments.

But the daily readings have skipped over a dramatic passage. In between today’s reading and yesterday’s, Mount Sinai has exploded with the thunderous voice of God.

On the morning of the third day there were peals of thunder and lightning, and a heavy cloud over the mountain, and a very loud blast of the shofar,* so that all the people in the camp trembled.
But Moses led the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stationed themselves at the foot of the mountain.
Now Mount Sinai was completely enveloped in smoke, because the LORD had come down upon it in fire. The smoke rose from it as though from a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled violently.
The blast of the shofar grew louder and louder, while Moses was speaking and God was answering him with thunder.

Exodus 19:16-19

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The writer of Exodus wants us to know that God was serious when delivering the Commandments:

With appropriate ritual preparation on the part of Israel (19:1–15), YHWH comes storming into the presence of Israel (19:16–25). This divine arrival, technically characterized as a theophany, a showing of God, is a disturbing upheaval of the mountain. This description of divine arrival is highly stylized and may reflect something of a repeatable liturgical performance. YHWH, shrouded in mystery, is accompanied by fire, smoke, the violent shaking of the mountain, a blast of trumpets, and thunder. The mountain, occupied by this assertive deity, is now saturated with dangerous holiness, so dangerous that YHWH might “break out against them” (19:22).

Walter Brueggemann – Delivered into Covenant (Pivotal Moments in the Old Testament)

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These commandments, delivered clearly and deliberately in today’s passage, form the immutable groundwork for relationship with God. God makes it clear from the beginning that friends of God honor both God and neighbor, and in so doing honor themselves. While many of the Commandments are stated as prohibitions, they are really guides toward wholeness and balance in spiritual and communal life.

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I remember, as a youngster, using the Commandments as a guide when preparing my list for weekly confession. It was hard to generate that list because, most of the time, I was a fairly good kid. I was pretty sure I hadn’t coveted my neighbor’s wife or anything like that.

I had not yet learned to capture the spirit of the Commandments which is just and humble relationship with God and God’s Creation. This relationship is rooted in awareness of and reverence for God’s Presence in all things.

In the Beatitudes, Jesus teaches us the perfection of the Ten Commandments. A magnificent book that helped me learn this is The Spirituality of the Beatitudes by Michael Crosby – another life-changing book.

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But the seed sown on rich soil
is the one who hears the word and understands it,
who indeed bears fruit
and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.

Matthew 13:23

Like the seed variously scattered in today’s Gospel reading, our daily choices and actions may or may not fall short of the fertile ground. Of course, we have the spirit of the Commandments as a guide for that assessment. But the surer guide is the new Law of Love poured out for us on the still and silent Mount Calvary, and codified for us in the Gospel.

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Poetry: The Garden of Love – William Blake, the famous mystical poet of late 18th and early 19th century England, was a deeply committed Christian. But he loathed organized religion because he felt that it destroyed the spirit of true faith. I chose this poem because it might reflect what happens when we see the Commandments only as spiritless rules.

I went to the Garden of Love,
And saw what I never had seen:
A Chapel was built in the midst,
Where I used to play on the green.

And the gates of this Chapel were shut,
And 'Thou shalt not' writ over the door;
So I turn'd to the Garden of Love,
That so many sweet flowers bore.

And I saw it was filled with graves,
And tomb-stones where flowers should be:
And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds,
And binding with briars, my joys & desires.

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Music: The Ten Commandments – Johnny Cash – A delightful song that suggests we can find theologians anywhere if we just look for them! 😉