16th Week, Friday, July 28
Exodus 20:1-17 / Matthew 13:18-23
God teaches his people the Law; God delivered these commandments.
Israel didn't view the Ten Commandments as something negative. Rather, they saw them as being positive. They were a concrete sign of God's deep and merciful love for them. Israel viewed God's commandments as freeing them "from" a life of moral slavery and freeing them "for" a life of loving service. That's why the psalmist sings to God: "How I love your law, () LORD! How sweet to my palate are your promises. . . A lamb to my feet is your word, a light to my path." (Ps 119:97, 108, 105)***
How do we view God's commandments and the teachings of Jesus? “The law is not up in the sky. . Nor is it across the sea, that you should say, 'Who will cross the sea to get it for us? No, it is . . . in your hearts; you have only to carry it out." Deuteronomy 12-14
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The ten commandments are actually a summary Statement of the covenant God made with his people. They are the conditions of the contract. God will be their God and they will be his people if they observe this law. They are divided into two parts: The first three show man's religious responsibility, the others are man's relation to his fellowmen, the moral responsibility. Number three shows the perfection of God just as seven is the number of human perfection. It takes the form of a treaty the monarch of a near Eastern country made with a vassal state. Such a treaty has the following form:
1. A personal introduction: Here: I am the Lord your God.
2. Reference to the historical situation: Here: who brought you out of Egypt.
3. The conditions of the treaty: Here: the ten commandments and
4. The sanctions: Here: blessing or punishment.
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Whether out of defiance or out of frustration, some people say that rules are made to be broken. But if every rule that is made is to be broken, then certainly chaos will set in, and there will be no law and order at all. But of course, that is the extreme case and not likely that such a situation will happen.
Nonetheless, if rules are broken, then it is necessary to look at the rules that are broken and to see if they are still relevant and applicable in the present day situations. If not, then the rule needs to be changed or removed. In the 1st reading, we hear of God giving His people what is generally called the "10 Commandments". God gave His people His laws which was not meant for His pleasure but for His people's happiness and to have peace in their lives.
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“I am the Lord your God. I brought you… out of the house of slavery.” These opening words of the commandments mark the meaning that the Old Testament gave to God’s commandments. They are the charter of fidelity for us, God’s partners, to the God of the covenant. No one can belong to God’s free people without being faithful to these fundamentals. The commandments are the road to freedom. Their basis is love, which makes us faithful to God and to people.
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Jesus explains the parable only to his disciples. They were astonished. They had asked him, "Why do you talk to them in parables?" The answer puzzled them and us. It is not granted to them to understand the mysteries of the kingdom. Does Jesus tell such exquisite stories so that they may not understand? Impossible! How? Every teacher preaches; even we in private conversation have the experience that we speak on a matter that has affected us very much' which means a lot to us, which has deeply moved us; and yet it falls flat, it strikes no spark, it means nothing to them. Why is that? To understand and accept we need certain dispositions, intellectual, moral and emotional. Without them the message does not penetrate. As in the parable, it is the soil that is not right. A missionary may come full of zeal to be a sower, to sow the seed. It does not take root. That is the reason why we have schools. There we create those dispositions: intellectual, moral and emotional. We cannot begin to sow which is not much more pleasant. We start removing stones, cleaning, ploughing, hoeing, harrowing, weeding, loosening soils, furrowing, fertilizing, and then wait for God's grace. That is what a mission is.
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Matthew interprets for his community and applies to their situation what the parable of the sower means for them. When he began to tell the parable of the sower, Jesus said: “listen.” When Matthew explains it and adapts it to his community, we are told again: “Hear.” We have to listen to the parable and see how it applies to ourselves. By listening we have also to listen to the signs of our time, how the word of Christ the sower applies to our time and our people, that the word may be accepted and bear fruit.
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Prayer: Lord, mighty God, at times some feel your commandments as a yoke hard to bear and a limitation to our freedom. Make us deeply realize, Lord, that they are a strong safeguard against any form of slavery. By your commands keep us free to respect the rights to freedom of people far and near and to become ever more your sons and daughters set free by Jesus Christ, your Son and our Lord for ever. Amen
