Ex. 20:1-17; Ps: 19:8-11; 1 Cor. 1:22-25; Jn. 2:13-25
“You shall not” is given eight times by the Lord in issuing the ten commandments with only twice speaking in the affirmative. “You shall not” does not leave any discretionary judgment in following the Lord’s commandments. The two affirmative statements include “keep holy the sabbath” and “Honor your father and mother”. As clear and direct as these statements are, we see in the gospel of John “But Jesus would not trust himself to them (Jews or Gentiles) because he knew them all, and did not need anyone to testify about human nature. He himself understood it well.” What does Jesus understand well of human nature? Could it be that human pride stands in the way of obedience with a humble heart?
Regardless of how clear the word of God is human nature looks for signs and wisdom to believe the word but the true sign of the power of God’s word is Jesus crucified, “a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles”. In other words, human nature looks to itself to transform the word into its own wisdom when Jesus crucified is the call to a transformation of self by faith. Let’s consider the wisdom of human nature.
God says, “You shall not have other gods besides me” but it is said the world revolves around money so that remains a priority and major concern of life so much that we value “climbing the financial ladder” more than climbing the spiritual ladder to the kingdom of God.
God says, “You shall not take the name of the Lord, your God in vain” but it is said if I am upset and cry out in in frustration “Jesus Christ” at least my anger is misdirected at him and not at someone else, besides it is only a common expression many others say. Normalizing sin does not make it right.
God says, “Remember to keep holy the sabbath day” but it is said if it is between coming to church or sleeping in on Sunday as the only day of rest then God understands we need our rest, or does he? It reminds me of scripture where two shall be in bed, one will be taken to heaven and the other not.
God says, “Honor your father and your mother” but it is said I have a right to live my life first after all they lived their lives and made their choices, now I have to make mine. It reminds of the Pharisees who were called “hypocrites” because they accepted money as atonement for the people not taking care of their parents, widows, and children. Is there any justification for neglect of those who cared for us in our youth?
God says, “You shall not kill” but it is said if the law allows it then it is acceptable after all it is my body, my choice to give birth or have an abortion or even to end my life when I determine my suffering I cannot bear. The gift of life comes from God and in rejecting his gift we reject him also. In birth God’s gift of life is a treasure, what we do with this treasure is our gift back to him. Killing is a rejection of his love.
God says, “You shall not commit adultery” but it is said if someone was unfaithful to you then you have a right to move on with your life onto another relationship. How many husbands did Jesus claim the woman at the well had and the one she was with at the time was not her husband? Breaking the bond of marriage opens the soul to a life of infidelity not just to the other but to oneself. We can convince ourselves “this is the one” only to recognize we have lied to ourselves.
God says, “You shall not steal” but it is said if it is for a good cause to follow the “Robinhood” rule, steal from the rich to give to the poor then it is right because it is wrong for the rich to be so rich. Remember the parable of the laborer who was hired early in the day and those who were hired later, they all received the same pay. To human nature it seems unfair but God is generous according to his purpose.
God says, “You shall not bear false witness” but it is said that if spoken as a “white” lie to protect yourself and others then there is a good cause. It reminds me when Jesus claimed it is not what comes into the mouth that is defiled but what comes out of the mouth. Silence is a virtue.
God says, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house” but it is said that it is only natural to have “healthy competition with the Jones’s” for being the best on the block. Then again when we live beyond our means it does have a way of coming back to “bite” us.
God says, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife…nor anything else that belongs to him” but it is said a little jealousy cannot be helped. But it is also said jealousy is a sign of unfaithfulness and without faith we die.
But who says these things anyway? Now it seems human nature is able to find qualifiers and disqualifiers to the commandments. There is always a loophole human wisdom can create to allow for what is being denied. This comes from the “stubbornness” of the human heart not ready to follow the sign of Jesus crucified but wanting justification for the exception to the commandment rather than recognizing “The law of the Lord is perfect” and “the command of the Lord is clear”.
When we create our own justification, we turn the temple of the Lord into a “den of thieves”. The “temple” Jesus speaks of is his own body crucified on the cross which we carry in our lives and “destroy” when we sin. If we accept the words of scripture “Zeal for your house will consume me” let us consider how Jesus is also consumed by his love for each of us knowing we allow sin into his house in our souls to destroy his temple in us. He desires not one to be lost but all to be saved. God has a “zeal” to bring us to salvation that we may celebrate the “feast of Passover” meaning the Passover of death into life eternal and into his glory this Easter by turning away from our sins, our justifications, our human understanding and returning to serving God as a people of faith.
We return to him when we keep holy the “sabbath”. This day for the Christian is represented as the day of the resurrection Easter Sunday and every Sunday we come to celebrate his passion, death, and resurrection in the Mass. It is the Mass that is the pinnacle of worship as we bring our brokenness, our confession of sin, our offering of our charity represented by all we have done during our week and God receives it in atonement for our sins to wash us clean by his body and blood in the Eucharist.
In a time when churches still remain with limited attendance, we see that even with the limits enforced there remains empty sitting where many of the faithful once attended. Have they simply “lost faith”, remain in fear, or live in a world of qualifiers and disqualifiers that represent human nature? The time of re-evangelization is now.
We honor God when we honor our father and mother. Father and mother are the visible sign of our parents representing our heavenly Father and Mother Mary. If we cannot honor the visible signs of our parents through who we receive our earthly body how can we honor our heavenly Father through who we receive our soul or our heavenly Mother who gave birth to the redeemer?
“Yes, but” there are parents who abandon their children, abuse them, and neglect them of their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs so do they fall into the “disqualified” or do they? We continue to honor them with an act of charity by praying for them even when a relationship cannot be sustained. This is what bring us the peace we seek when we honor God this way.
Then there is the question “why Mary, when we can go directly to the source in Jesus Christ?” When we get married, we not only give honor to our spouse with our love but also by honoring the in-laws we demonstrate our commitment to our spouse. We married into an earthly family thus in loving God we accept all the family in communion with the Holy Family, Jesus, Joseph, and Mary, the Holy Spirit, and all the extended family in the communion of saints and angels. No one can be left out of our heavenly family, not even the souls in purgatory who we honor when we pray for them, these too give honor to God. And by the way don’t forget your guardian angel so often neglected in our prayers.
In the magisterium of the Church there are many Fathers and the Church is also our mother to be honored. Our Holy Father Pope Francis has called for this year to be the year to honor Saint Joseph. Many have made a consecration to our Blessed Mother Mary so does that mean we cannot consecrate ourselves to Saint Joseph? The answer by now should be clear, we can love them both and need to love them all. The Church is seeking the intervention into our world through Saint Joseph as there is a great need to have his witness to faithfulness in obedience as Saint Joseph gave testimony as earthly father to Jesus and husband to Mary. His testimony was simple yet profound, he was the guardian of the treasure of the lives of Jesus and Mary and today we need to recognize the treasure we have been given in our homes, our families, and church, and ourselves. Saint Joseph pray for us.
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