The Old Testament scripture for this Sunday reads like a folk tale. Moses, the leader of his people, pleads with them. “Listen to the voice of God. Return to the Holy One.”
One can imagine the grumbling at this request. “Don’t know what he means.” “This God of Moses always wants more from us.” “Too hard!”
The leader and hero Moses tries a different angle. “Don’t say God’s law is too hard or too mysterious for you to get. It’s right here in your hearts.”
Our Christian hero Jesus also believes God’s laws are written in the heart. They are very near as the first reading says. Jesus takes time in his ministry to talk and listen to marginal people. His new law of love includes the poor, the God-forsaken, sinners, tax-collectors, and even Samaritans.
For Jesus, to heed God’s voice is to pay attention to what his own times and experiences are telling him is the right thing to do. He knows in Sunday’s gospel that the command to love God and his own family and tribe includes loving one’s self — and even those who are not considered in good standing with the Jewish people.
God’s law is very near.
Moses spoke to the people. “If only you heed the voice of the Holy One, your God, and keep God’s commandments and statutes that are written in this book of the law; if only you return to the Holy One, your God, with all your heart and all your soul.
“For this command which I enjoin on you today is not too mysterious and 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?’
“Nor is it across the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will cross the sea to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?’ No, it is something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts; you have only to carry it out.”
Deuteronomy 30.10-14
- What one recent experience in your life do you associate with the voice of God, calling you to listen with all your heart and soul?
- What connections do you see between the Good Samaritan story and the passage from Deuteronomy?
- What is one thing you can do that might change another person’s life or your own?