9th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A
DEUTERONOMY 11:18-28
Moses spoke to the people, saying:
Place these words of mine in your heart and soul. Bind them at your wrist as a sign, and let them be a pendant between your eyes.
Teach them to your children, speaking of them at home and abroad, whether you lie down or rise.
Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates, so that, as long as the heavens are above the earth, your days and those of your children may be multiplied in the land which the LORD swore to your ancestors to give them.
For if you diligently keep all these commandments which I command you to do, loving the LORD your God, walking in all His ways, and holding fast to Him, the LORD will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves.
Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours; your territory shall extend from the wilderness to the Lebanon, and from the River, the river Euphrates, to the western sea. No man will be able to stand against you; the LORD your God will lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land on which you tread, as He has promised you.
See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today, to go after other gods that you have not known.
Deuteronomy means “second Law.” It is a reissue of the Law, already written in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, compiled by the sages of Israel around the 6th century B.C., in the form of speeches put into the mouth of Moses.
In today’s discourse, the very foundation of Israel’s faith is expressed: if you are faithful to God, God will be with you. It develops several interesting ideas:
“Place these words in your heart and soul, bind them at your wrist as a sign… Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates…”
A wonderful image of the importance that fidelity to the Word must have for the Israelite. And in the Gospels (even in current scenes) we see how the temptation of Israel consisted in fulfilling the mandate to the letter, carrying a leather box containing words of the Law on the forehead or tied to the wrist… and being content because with this the precept has already been fulfilled. The letter of the Law <> the spirit of the Law.
The last paragraph is lamentable: this is how Israel understands “its” God. Their God is theirs, and not of others, rather it is theirs against others. This is how Israel understood it. It appears, in a horrifying way, in Paul’s speech in Pisidian Antioch:
Acts 13:16-19
16 Paul stood up, motioned with his hand, and said, “Men of Israel, and those who fear God, listen: 17 The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and made the people great during their sojourn in the land of Egypt, and with an uplifted arm He led them out from it. 18 And for about forty years He put up with them in the wilderness; 19 and after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, He gave them their land as an inheritance…
It is chilling to see the indifference with which these statements are made: God exterminates seven nations to settle His people in Canaan, and this atrocity does not cause any alarm. Did Paul believe this? It seems we have no reason to doubt it. God is of Israel, Israel is the only people of God. Those seven nations are not of God, and God exterminates them to give land to His people. Tragic faith, abominable.
And the final paragraph, terrible, which contains a truth and a horrendous interpretation: before us lies success and error, that is the pure truth, the human being has the capacity to choose his path, and that path can lead him to full realization and to destruction.
What is terrible is the role attributed to God in that human adventure. Is God the one who blesses those who do good and curses those who do evil? Is God the one who rewards submission and punishes (with atrocious eternal torments) disobedience? Or is God rather the one who is concerned that the human being succeeds, the one who inspires, nourishes, encourages the good path, the one who constantly forgives mistakes?
In a word, do we speak of the impassive judge or the concerned mother?
The Old Testament cannot be considered simply “the word of God,” without reservations or nuances. And it certainly is not when its message contradicts that of Jesus. Only Jesus is “THE WORD,” the rest may be an announcement, a prehistory of the Word, but it must always be read in comparison with what Jesus said.
ROMANS 3:21-28
But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, as attested by the Law and the Prophets, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe; for there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
The reading of this text becomes extremely complicated, especially because of the use of the terms “righteousness” and “justification.” Without going into too many explanations, let us remember that the question is whether what saves is the fulfillment of the old Law or faith in Jesus. And Paul is very clear about this.
On the other hand, expressions such as “instrument of propitiation by his own blood, through faith, to show his righteousness” seem strange to us, as they lead us into the topic of Jesus’ death as the price of blood demanded by God to forgive our sins: the vicarious bloody satisfaction, so far from Jesus’ message about God/Abba, so far from “for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,” and so surprisingly present in Paul.
Faced with such complicated topics, I suggest that in the Eucharist we replace the previous reading with the following one, which goes very well with the central idea of the Gospel.
FROM THE FIRST LETTER OF JOHN (1 Jn 2:1 ff.)
We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments.
Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
But whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him.
Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling…
We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?
Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
José Enrique Galarreta, S.J.