Now when the seventh month came the whole people gathered as one man in the open space before the Water Gate, and they called upon Ezra the scribe to bring forth the book of the law of Moses which the Lord prescribed for Israel…“Today is holy to the Lord your God. Do not be sad, and do not weep.”—for all the people were weeping as they heard the words of the law.
—Nehemiah 8:1,9
(Between the March for Life and other goings on at school I had trouble getting posts up this week. Here’s something I was working on for Today.)
They were a people who had been separated from their land and their customs for generations. Though they had tried very hard to preserve the old ways while they were in exile, their children, as well as many of them, had never heard the words of their ancient law. These books were more than just legal code, it was their story; the story of a people called by the God who created all of humanity in His image to be His witness before all peoples, called out of slavery to freedom, called to be holy. It was to be the rule that guided them, a story that grounded and supported them through the good times and bad. These words were meant to remind them of their national identity. It was to remind them of the call that God had given them. But now they wept.
This story from the Book of Nehemiah tells of the restoration of Jerusalem and the Temple after the Exiles were permitted to return from Babylon. Upon hearing the words of the Torah again for the first time they wept because they realized that they had not kept faith with the Covenant that their forefathers had entered into at the time of Moses. In their hearts they knew that they had been on the wrong path even before the Exile, and in the end their break with the Covenant is what led to their captivity. Only renewing faith in God and the Covenant was going to give them any lasting security.
We are not exiles, in the sense that we have been taken from our land and kept from worshiping God. But at the same time there is a gap between the Gospel and the contemporary culture that has led us off the right path, sometimes whithout being aware of it. We need to examine our lives, both individually and communally, to see where we have lost faith with the Covenant we entered into with God at our baptism and renew each week in the Eucharist. This past week we held the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. It is a yearly reminder that we as a people have broken faith with God and have, at the very least, tolerated the great abomination of abortion in our land. Abortion is just one life issue, true. We will explore it and others in greater detail in future posts, but I start with it because all life issues stem from it. The preborn are the most vulnerable of God’s creation. They have no courts of appeal or lawyers to defend their cause. They have no rights that are recognized by the civil authority. The cheapening of their lives cheapens all life, be it that of the old and infirmed or develpmentally challenged .
As I wrote, abortion is but one issue. Let us make that communal examination of conscience and not be afraid to ask ourselves where we have gone off the path. Let us listen to the Word of God again for the first time, and allow it to drive us to tears. Then, let us rededicate ourselves to the Gospel that gives life.
—Nehemiah 8:1,9
(Between the March for Life and other goings on at school I had trouble getting posts up this week. Here’s something I was working on for Today.)
They were a people who had been separated from their land and their customs for generations. Though they had tried very hard to preserve the old ways while they were in exile, their children, as well as many of them, had never heard the words of their ancient law. These books were more than just legal code, it was their story; the story of a people called by the God who created all of humanity in His image to be His witness before all peoples, called out of slavery to freedom, called to be holy. It was to be the rule that guided them, a story that grounded and supported them through the good times and bad. These words were meant to remind them of their national identity. It was to remind them of the call that God had given them. But now they wept.
This story from the Book of Nehemiah tells of the restoration of Jerusalem and the Temple after the Exiles were permitted to return from Babylon. Upon hearing the words of the Torah again for the first time they wept because they realized that they had not kept faith with the Covenant that their forefathers had entered into at the time of Moses. In their hearts they knew that they had been on the wrong path even before the Exile, and in the end their break with the Covenant is what led to their captivity. Only renewing faith in God and the Covenant was going to give them any lasting security.
We are not exiles, in the sense that we have been taken from our land and kept from worshiping God. But at the same time there is a gap between the Gospel and the contemporary culture that has led us off the right path, sometimes whithout being aware of it. We need to examine our lives, both individually and communally, to see where we have lost faith with the Covenant we entered into with God at our baptism and renew each week in the Eucharist. This past week we held the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. It is a yearly reminder that we as a people have broken faith with God and have, at the very least, tolerated the great abomination of abortion in our land. Abortion is just one life issue, true. We will explore it and others in greater detail in future posts, but I start with it because all life issues stem from it. The preborn are the most vulnerable of God’s creation. They have no courts of appeal or lawyers to defend their cause. They have no rights that are recognized by the civil authority. The cheapening of their lives cheapens all life, be it that of the old and infirmed or develpmentally challenged .
As I wrote, abortion is but one issue. Let us make that communal examination of conscience and not be afraid to ask ourselves where we have gone off the path. Let us listen to the Word of God again for the first time, and allow it to drive us to tears. Then, let us rededicate ourselves to the Gospel that gives life.
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