Sacred Heart Parish

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15TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (C)

  1. In our Entrance Antiphon for our liturgy this Sunday morning, the psalmist says to the Lord in prayer – “In my justice I shall see you face to face, O Lord; when your glory appears, my joy will be full.” This expression – seeing God’s face – is ever-present in the prayer life of ancient Israel. In Psalm 42, we read – “Like the deer that yearns for running streams, so my soul is yearning for you, O God. My soul is thirsting for God, the God of my life. When can I enter and see the face of God?” In the 27th Psalm, we hear the plea – “Hide not your face from me, O Lord; do not in anger repel your servant”. The psalmist makes this act of faith – “One thing I ask of the Lord; this I seek: to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life; that I may gaze on the loveliness of the Lord and contemplate his face.”

  2. The Church teaches us that every person in his or her deepest reality constitutes a radical openness to the mystery of God. This means that in the search for what is true and good, every person, knowingly or unknowingly, seeks the face of God. St. Augustine gave this truth its classical expression when he wrote in prayer – “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts remain restless until they rest in you”. The created realities that we seek in our daily experience, good though they may be, are but limited, fractional participations in the truth and goodness and beauty of God. As the psalmist assures us in words of prayer – “More precious than gold or silver, O Lord, is the way of life you teach us”.

  3. Our first reading today is an excellent example of how God instructed his Old Testament people and gave them the Torah, their way of life. The Book of Deuteronomy was composed well after the death of Moses. It means the “second law” – more accurately, the second literary expression of the giving of the Mosaic Law – the first expression is the Book of Exodus. Deuteronomy represents a time of renewal for ancient Israel, a renewal Covenant of faithfulness to the Lord in response to the Lord’s unfailing love for Israel. The way to God, the road that returns Israel to God, is the word of God written in the law of God. Our responsorial psalm, number 19, has told us – “The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul; the decree of the Lord is trustworthy, giving wisdom to the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the command of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eye.” Moses said to the people when he gave them God’s law – “If only you would heed the voice of the Lord, your God, and keep his commandments and statutes that are written in this book of the law, when you return to the Lord, your God, with all your heart and all your soul.”

  4. You and I today read Deuteronomy in the light of Christ. The Lord Jesus did not come among us to do away with the law but to bring it to perfection in the Gospel. Notice what we ask for in our Opening Prayer – “God our Father, your light of truth guides us to the light of Christ. May all who follow his way reject what is contrary to the Gospel.” Where are we to find God’s light of truth that guides us in the ways of Christ? Is it somewhere up in the sky, so that the astronauts can bring it to us? Is it far away across the sea somewhere, so that those who have it can tell us about it? No – our first reading tells us that it is something very near to us, already in our mouths and in our hearts; we have only to carry it out.

  5. From creation’s beginning up to Deuteronomy and up to the parable of the Good Samaritan and through the teachings of the Church today, God has been instructing his people in his ways. God’s pedagogy, his teaching methods have been progressive. First of all, in his saving plan, God has written his law in every human heart. Because of sin and selfishness, original sin and personal sin, human minds are darkened and human wills are weakened and this is what prompted God to give more specific instruction through the Law of the Ten Commandments, which spell out in detail what the law written in our hearts truly means, that God so loved the world that he sent us his only Son. Jesus is the new Moses that gives us a new command, not just proportionate to our human nature as are the natural law and the Ten Commandments, but proportionate to the new life of grace received through the sacraments of Christian initiation, our sharing in God’s own life. We can recall here the words of our Gospel reading – A scholar of the law asks Jesus what he needs to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus asks the scholar what is written in the Law? The lawyer appropriately quotes from the Old Testament Scriptures the two-fold love of God and love of neighbor. Jesus then says to him – “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live”. The scholar then poses the crucial question – “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus’ answer to this crucial question is the parable of the Good Samaritan. Who is the neighbor to the robber’s victim? Obviously, the one who treated the wounded man with mercy. Jesus ends the conversation when he says – “Go and do likewise”.

  6. This parable is a wonderful example of what we call the “law of Christ”, the law of the Gospel, the new law as distinct from the old law, the covenant of the Ten Commandments given to Moses on Mt. Sinai. Is the new law a written law like the Old Testament law written on the two stone tablets? Listen to how Thomas Aquinas answers this question: “At the heart of the new law is the grace of the Holy Spirit which is given through Christ. As a result, the new law is chiefly the grace of the Holy Spirit who is given to those who are in Christ Jesus. Thus, it is not primarily a written law. Nevertheless, the new law contains things that dispose us to receive the grace of the Holy Spirit, and we need to be instructed in such matters.” Thus the new law is also a written law containing the Beatitudes, the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy, the command to forgive after the example of Jesus, the command to love even those who do not love us in return. The power to carry out these instructions is the Holy Spirit, always impelling us, and hopefully also always indwelling within us. Obedience to the new law begins with the prayer – “Come, Holy Spirit!” We have already quoted Psalm 42 – “Like the deer that yearns for running water, so my soul is yearning for you, O God. My soul is thirsting for God; when can I enter and see the face of God?” In his Letter to the Corinthians, Paul speaks of Christ as the image of God and says to his readers – “We do not preach ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for the sake of Jesus. For God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness’ has shone in our hearts to bring to light the knowledge of the glory of God on the face of Jesus Christ.”