Dear Friend, If we were to look at people today we could broadly categorize them into people who observe the law and people who break the law. Unfortunately the number of those who challenge the law and break the law would seem to be increasing at the moment. Especially when it comes to God's laws, precepts and commandments, there seem to be many who feel these laws are outdated and can be broken at will. Do we care about the Law? Or is our attitude: "Who cares?"
May we have a discerning week-end! - Fr. Jude ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- Sunday Reflections: Third Sunday of Lent Observing the Law 23-03-2003 Readings: Exodus 20: 1-17 1 Corinthians 1: 22-25 John 2: 13-25 In today's first reading we hear the Ten Commandments. If we look at history we know that all peoples, nations and cultures have had their own laws handed down by tradition. As expressed law, the Ten Commandments were not the first code of ethics written. What was different about this code was that it involved the reality of love. Unlike other religions in the Ancient Near East, the Hebrews combined together their religious beliefs and moral living. The Ten Commandments are the core of the law and the Jewish Scriptures. They implied a special relationship between God and his people and also took for granted that God would give his people a deeper and deeper understanding into their content and implications. The first three commandments provide direct regulations and guidelines about the people's relationship with their God, and the last seven deal with the peoples relationships among themselves and with others, but with one great difference. In other codes existing at that time, violation constituted a crime against one's fellow human being; in the Bible, it was a crime against God himself- thus it was a total different orientation given by the Ten Commandments. Each time we are tempted to break the law or bend it to our convenience, it would be good to remind ourselves that this is God's law and not something man-made. It comes from God's initiative, which is the foundation for this law: "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery... I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other God except me.." Secondly, we could remind ourselves that God did not give the Ten Commandments for his sake but for ours. We are the gainers when we observe them and losers when we break them. In other words God gave the Ten Commandments out of love for us and not in order to keep control over us; they are the guidelines to our own happiness not His! If they are a gift of God we need to be grateful for this gift. If however we look at them only as a task and an obligation that restricts our freedom we will be likely to ignore them at our own risk. The Ten Commandments On 3rd February 1959 10,000 metres above the Atlantic, Captain Lynch took a last look at the flight panel of the Boeing 707. The co-pilot was studying a map. Captain Lynch decided to stretch his legs, thinking that the worst was over. Shortly after leaving Paris they had run into a 120 kph headwind. But by now they had climbed above the storm. The captain made his way down the aisle between the rows of seats. All the passengers still had the seatbelts fastened. At the back a baby was crying in its mother's arms and the captain reassured her saying, "It will be better now. Your baby will be able to sleep." Just then Captain felt the right wing tip and he was thrown against the seats on the right hand side. At the same moment all the lights in the plane went out. Next he found himself lying on the floor. At least he thought it was the floor. But then he realised it was the ceiling he was on. The Boeing was on its back. He also knew it was dropping like a stone head first. He began to make his way back to the cockpit. He decided to try to hold the plane at 2,000 metres. He could see the sea through the night. The co-pilot had been knocked unconscious. He came to again and he and the captain managed to bring the Boeing to the horizontal. A few more seconds and the plane would have crashed. The whole incident lasted four minutes. What caused it? While the co-pilot was studying the map he did not notice the blue light on the indicator panel warning that the automatic pilot had stopped working. God has given us an indicator panel to guide us through life and prevent us from getting turned upside down and crashing. That indicator panel is the Commandments. The Commandments are a gift from God to help us enjoy life by not getting lost along the way. Not only are they a gift from God but they are also a sensible way to live. Author Unknown Proper orientation to the Law is what the Gospel is all about. While the people lived in houses and tents God did not need a physical dwelling place; while the people needed food and drink, God did not need either and in fact He provided food for all his creatures. Yet God through Moses, instructed the people of Israel to offer to him in sacrifice, animals and the products of the land. It was part of the tradition that twice daily a lamb was killed in sacrifice in the temple and on solemn occasions and feast days, pigeons, lambs, bulls and other animals were sacrificed in large number. Perhaps we could ask: Why did God command the Israelites to worship through material offerings such as these? It was certainly not for His sake, God didn't need any of these offerings. But God in his goodness adapted himself to the mentality of his people. There was a reason for this adaptation: The neighbouring people offered similar sacrifices to idols; if God had not provided the Israelites with similar ways of worshipping the true God, they would have been easily drawn to sinful practices of their neighbours. Hence the law prescribed in detail how the people should worship and honour God. God was leading them through these practices to a deeper understanding of true worship, which the Messiah would come to establish. The first part of today's episode centres around the temple building and the temple practices which had gradually become oppressive and corrupt. The motive for these practices should have been service of God and neighbour but instead the motive was profit. All the procedures were legal but were against the spirit of the law and done in the name of religion. That is why when Jesus entered the temple he was upset and angry because God's house was being desecrated. "Making a whip of some cord he drove them out of the temple.and said, "Take this all out of here and stop turning my Father's house into a market place." Jesus was not against the simple people, who were sincere in their worshipping practices in the temple, but he condemned the greed of the religious leaders who took advantage of the simple faith of the people to become rich under the pretence of honouring God. Jesus' action was amazing and unprecedented considering that the temple had pride of place and by his action Jesus was taking on the whole religious institution and challenging their power and authority. They questioned him: "What sign can you show us to justify what you have done?" Jesus answered: "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up." Whereas the first part centres on the temple this second part focuses on Jesus himself as God's temple. He was referring to his bodily resurrection but neither the temple authorities nor did his own disciples understand the deeper implications, which would become clearer only after the resurrection. The last part of the gospel of today speaks of Jesus' interaction with the people. Many of them were impressed by his challenging action in the temple. They did not understand his action but they somehow believed that God was with Jesus, but they failed to understand that God was within Jesus, that Jesus himself was God and that true worship was worship within one's heart. The heart of all worship would be loving obedience to God and his commandments and therefore the true temple where one worshiped God was within one's heart. This is what Jesus came to do and this is what our true worship should lead us to. In the words of the psalmist: "Here I am O Lord, ready to do your will." And the words of Jesus himself: " I always do what pleases my Father." May our daily worship lead us to a greater obedience to His Commandments! Fr. Jude Botelho www.netforlife.net ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- PS. The stories, incidents and anecdotes used in the reflections have been collected over the years from books as well as from sources over the net and from e-mails received. Every effort is made to acknowledge authors whenever possible. If you send in stories or illustrations I would be grateful if you could quote the source as well so that they can be acknowledged if used in these reflections. These reflections are also available on my web site www.netforlife.net Thank you. =============================================================================== This mail is generated from JOYnet, a Jesus Youth mailing list. For more info on the list visit http://www.jesusyouth.org/joynet To unsubscribe from the list send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to the list visit http://www.jesusyouth.org/joynet/join In case of any issue related to the mailing list contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] ===============================================================================
