“Now, Israel, hear the statutes and decrees which I am teaching you to observe, that you may live…” (Deut. 4:1).

That you may live! God has created us out of love to receive and share his love. God our loving Father is the true and eternal source of our lives, and he wants us to live in freedom and not in mere survival but to the full. To help us in our pursuit of experiencing the freedom and fullness of our lives he has given us his law which is to be written on our hearts.

In our first reading from Deuteronomy, Moses is preparing the people to go into the holy land. The first generation that left Egypt has died. The next generation will continue the journey. Moses wants to set this next generation up for success as he attempted to do with the first, in the hope that they will resist the temptations that led their fathers astray. He is giving them the “statutes and decrees” that they may put them into practice so that they may not separate themselves from God but remain and grow in relationship with him.

Moses guides his people to “observe” Torah, the law or teachings, “carefully” such that they may not only hear but also put them into practice and fulfill all that God has created them to be. This they are to do for the purpose of being a light to the surrounding nations of this new land. As they faithfully observe the law they will “give evidence of [their] wisdom and intelligence to the nations” (Deut. 4:6).

This affirms the goal of the psalmist: “The one who does justice will live in the presence of the LORD” (cf. Psalm 15). When the people follow the law of God, meditate upon it day and night, and put it into practice, they will be strengthened to resist the diversions, distractions, and temptations of the world. They are not doing so because they are serving a tyrannical god, but so that they will experience the loving care and relationship with the creator of heaven and earth and know and choose God before all other options.

“In Deuteronomy, it is clearly set forth, for the first time in human history, that love is the heart of the moral law: ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might’ (Deut 6:5)” (Bergsma, p. 374). God is not seeking dumb subservience, he is seeking a transformation of his children’s hearts. This will be a reality if his children are willing to choose to place God first in their lives and allow God to write his law on their hearts.

This “heart”, in the Jewish context of the time is the very core and center of the person, their very self, “the deepest center of who we are, that place from which our thoughts and actions arise. God wants to penetrate that heart, so that he becomes the center of our souls” (Barron, 214).

This is the invitation that God offers to us as well. We are invited by God to receive him in the depths of our souls, the core and foundation of our beings. Following St. James: “Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you and is able to save your souls. Be doers of the word and not hearers only… care for orphans and widows…” (James 1:21-22).

There is a two-fold dance required to participate in our relationship with God. We are to hear and choose to receive his word and share what we have received. As with the God’s chosen people, we are to be a light to the nations. We are to receive the teaching of God and put it into action such that the love we have received radiates out through our practical expressions he calls us to share in concrete expressions of service in our daily lives.

Jesus, in calling out the Pharisees, warns us of the dark side of the law. Fulfilling the law by obligation alone is not the goal. The law is provided such that we can examine our lives, see where we fall short of the precepts, and transform our hearts with God’s help. The Pharisees added provisions to the law, like the external ritual washing before eating, which in and of itself was not a bad thing, but in only maintaining the appearance of fulfilling the law externally, they are not allowing their hearts to be transformed by God’s love. As Jesus said, “… their hearts are far from me… You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition… the things that come out from within are what defile…” (Mk 7: 6, 8, 15).

Jesus did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill and show that the core principle of the law is to love God with all our hearts, mind, and strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves. This in no way is a watering down of the law. In fact, it is raising the bar even higher. It is much easier to observe ritual purity instead of accepting the invitation to allow Jesus to transform the darkness of our own hearts, where, “All these evils come from within and they defile” (Mk 7:23).

Jesus is the law incarnate. He does not lower the bar of the law so people can follow it. He meets us where we are, and when we are willing to receive his help, he will strengthen us and empower us, step by step to be transformed and conformed to himself that we will come to hear, understand, know, and practice God’s teachings. Jesus not only models for us the way to the Father by fulfilling the truth of the law and the prophets, he will empower us to do so. We cannot fulfill the precepts of the law on our own, we absolutely need his help.

Our time of worship, personal prayer, and living a moral life will be so much more intimate when we move beyond seeking merely to fulfill obligations. Obligation is important in the beginning, but we will not grow until we accept the invitation of Jesus to encounter the living God who loves us more than we can imagine. When we prepare and collect ourselves before our time of worship, prayer, and making a decision of what actions we are going to take, we are to do so knowing that we are encountering God in all we think, say, and do. In recognizing that God matters first and foremost, we will encounter him and experience his infinite love.

We move out of a life of darkness and sin when there is something better, when the truth is better than the lie, and the true good is better than the apparent good. We are empowered to resist temptations, distractions, and diversions from all that seeks to lead us astray when we experience the infinite love of the One who we long for in the depths of our soul. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life who leads us to experience the true, the good, and the beautiful. The law of God leads us to fulfillment and freedom that we may experience the life we were born for.

“It is not ritual actions that make us pure. Purity and impurity arise within man’s heart and depend on the condition of his heart… In place of ritual purity, what we have now is not merely morality, but the gift of encounter with God in Jesus Christ… It is the incarnate God who makes us truly pure and draws creation into unity with God” (Pope Benedict XVI).

Photo: Encountered dolphins during my Rosary walk Friday night and enjoyed a time of unity with God and his creation for an additional twenty minutes. “You dolphins and all water creatures, bless the Lord” (Daniel 3:79).

Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, August 31, 2024

Barron, Robert in The Word on Fire Bible. Park Ridge, IL: Word On Fire Catholic Ministries, 2020.

Bergsma, John. The Word of the Lord: Reflections on the Sunday Mass Readings for Year B. Steubenville, OH: Emmaus Road Publishing, 2021.