The Ongoing Call of God ... follow My Commandments?
Homily preached July 10, 2022
by Monsignor Michael Deering

Perhaps you’ve heard someone say something like this:

“The cry of the Church today, some 2000 years after the time of Jesus

is exactly the same as

the cry of Moses in His day ... some 1200 years before the time of Jesus.

That’s a span of time of 3,200 years.        And what they’re implying is ...

that in all that time ... the cry of God to His people ...

thru His Church today ... and all the way back to Moses ... has been the same!

And you know what ... they’d be right!   The call of God hasn’t changed.   Why?

Well, you see ... before the time of Moses ... sin reigned in the world.

Yes, from the first human, Adam,  to Moses ... sin was everywhere.

And part of the reason was ...

that God had not yet clearly identified ... right from wrong behavior ...

and therefore man was living without Divine guidance ...

     and left on his own .... man’s behavior was very displeasing to God.

But, while man was sinning in God’s eyes... he actually didn’t know he was sinning.

Sin separates man from God ... and God certainly didn’t want that.

So in the fullness of time ... God presented the man, Moses,

who He had chosen as the leader of his Chosen People ...

with His Moral Law ... written by the finger of God on Stone Tablets.

Yes, God delivered His Moral Law written on Stone Tablets ... not Parchment ...

 indicating that God’s Moral Law would be enduring ... binding for all time.

God’s Moral Law came to be known as the Decalogue (for Ten Commandments) and also as the Mosaic Law (as it was first given to the people through Moses).

With the people now having God’s Law in writing,

they clearly knew right behavior from wrong behavior  ...

where wrong behavior was disobeying the Moral Commands of God. 

Moses’ desire and indeed his mission was to guide the Chosen People ...

to live in God’s blessing ... the blessing that God so wanted them to enjoy ...

and they did that by... obeying His Commandments.

In our First Reading, from Deuteronomy, the 5^th Book of the Bible, we just heard:

“Moses said to the people: ‘If only you would heed the voice of the Lord, your God,

and keep his commandments.’”

How frustrated Moses had to be ... to have presented the people with God’s clear guidance of Good behavior and to have the people still choosing to commit sin.

And this takes us back to last week’s homily about the need for all of us to be

“a Salesman for Christ”.

Remember those words of encouragement I shared with you from Birmingham Catholic, Paul Noto published in an article in the recent One Voice magazine?

And remember how we probed the same question last week of:

Why ... in this day and time ... do we still need to be ... Salesman for Christ?

Hasn’t the whole wide world heard of God’s Moral Law ...

and having heard it ...

hasn’t the whole wide world embraced and followed God’s Moral Law?

Unfortunately, the answer is No and No!

No, the whole wide world has not heard of God’s Moral Law ... and

No, the whole wide world has not embraced and followed God’s Moral Law.  

And those “No’s” come from a variety of reasons.

First of all, many new human beings are being born every minute.

And they each are born with the freedom to choose whether they do right or wrong.

Secondly, many cultures have expelled the Moral Law of God from their land and

therefore have become “God-less” in their actions.

Plus many Parents have fallen short of their duty to hand on the Moral Law of God to their children and grandchildren; so they never came to know it & live it.

Thirdly, many people have freely chosen to disobey God’s Moral Law ...

choosing to do what they want ... instead of what God wants.

And so back to our opening statement ... that the cry of the Church today ...

seems to be exactly the same as the cry of Moses long ago.

That’s very true ... and we’ve just reviewed a few of the reasons why.

You know ... God loves us so much ... and He desires so much ... that we stay united with Him ... that He didn’t just write his Moral Law on Stone Tablets ...

He wrote it somewhere else too!

Where was that?

In our First Reading, Moses tries to explain it to the people of his day announcing:

“For this command that I enjoin on you today is not too mysterious & remote for you. It is not up in the sky that you should say, ‘who will go up in the sky

to get it for us and tell us of it that we may carry it out?’”

He also declares: “Nor is it across the sea, that you should say,

‘Who will cross the sea to get if for us and tell us of it that we may carry it out?”

And then he reveals something truly amazing ... saying ...

“No, it is something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts;

you have only to carry it out.’”

Where is it?    Moses tells them ... God’s Law is already in their heart!

Yes, God so wants us to live in His love that He has written His Law on our hearts.

You see, God has given each of us a conscience ... an internal forum ...

an inner voice that helps us to know right from wrong ...

before ... during ... and after ... everything we do.

What we need to do is listen to our conscience ... our onboard helper ...

to make the right choices ... each and every day.

If we regularly choose to ignore the guidance of our conscience ...

we will become numb to having this great helper and soon  ...

      we end up operating without the special help ... we so desperately need.

It’s here that the sins of Pride and Arrogance contribute to us

disobeying God’s commandments ... and freely choosing to commit sin.

Yes, we human beings are weak ...

and therefore we’re vulnerable to the temptations of the evil one ...

         who is only too happy to get us to act in disobedience to God’s plans.

And so ... as great as it is ... to have God’s law written on our heart ...

in and of itself ... that still doesn’t give us enough power ...

to choose God’s ways over our ways.

Knowing this, God’s plan for our Salvation included us getting some special help, actually ... the very best of help ...

namely Himself  ... the indwelling of God’s Holy Spirit!

God gave us hints of His intention to provide this help early in Salvation History.

Some 700 years after Moses ... and still 500 years before Jesus ... God sent the 3 Major Prophets of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel to assure the people of

God’s love and upcoming assistance.

It was Jeremiah who foretold that God would write his Law on their Hearts.

It was Ezekiel who foretold that God would take away their stony hearts ...

 and give them new hearts.

And indeed He did!

In the fullness of time God sent His Holy Spirit into the world at Pentecost ...

to take up residence in the souls of all the Baptized ...

to empower them with supernatural assistance

in the decisions we make every day. 

Do we have to follow God’s commandments?

Well, you still have your Free Will and so you don’t have to do anything.

The question is ... Do you want to go to Heaven?

That’s the very question the Scholar of the Law asked Jesus in today’s Gospel:

“Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

The right answer was:

“You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart...and your neighbor as yourself.”

And what does loving the Lord involve?

Jesus says: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

They go together. We show our love by following God’s Commandments.

You know ...

It’s one thing to say, “Love ya Ma” ... but are you honoring her commands?

You see, on both the human and divine level,

we have to do more than just state our love ... we have to demonstrate our love.

So,

There it is ... from Moses ... to Jesus ... to the Church ... the message is the same:

“Keep the Commandments of God.”

It’s a never ending invitation ... it’s the sure way to inherit Eternal Life!

Amen!