Salve, Regina, Mater Misericordiae.
Praise be Jesus Christ.
In today's epistle from the book of Exodus,
God gives the commandments which are written on every human heart,
and he gives them to the Jewish people.
He does this amid thunder, smoke, and lightning.
Now why does he do this amid the terrible display of his power?
Because the Israelites were a stiff-necked people,
stubborn, slow to conform themselves to God's loving will.
So Moses says there was this impressive display of power
so that, quote,
The Scripture says that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.
It's a good starting point in the spiritual life
and is still very valid today.
The commandments, for the most part,
represent the bearing,
bare minimum of what we must do
in order to save our souls.
Remember, the rich young man in the gospel
says to our Lord,
Good Master, what good must I do
in order to enter into life?
And our Lord responds,
If thou wilt enter into life,
keep the commandments.
That is, below the commandments is death.
Death for the soul.
And so the fear of eternal life,
eternal punishment is a valid reason
to keep the commandments.
Valid, but not yet perfect.
You see, it's more perfect to keep the commandments
out of love rather than out of fear.
And this is what our Lord intends for us
in the new and everlasting covenant when he says,
If you love me, keep my commandments.
So this is why, principally, Christians should love God.
Christians should keep the commandments
because we love God,
because we love our Lord,
and do not want to do anything to offend him.
And in so doing, in loving him in this concrete,
practical, and real way,
we also save our souls.
Now today's gospel tells us how the Pharisees
added to the commandments certain human traditions,
which consisted of holy exterior formalities
and to which they attached more importance
than they did to observing the law of Moses.
Our Lord rebukes them sharply for this.
He says,
You have made void the commandment of God
for your tradition.
Hypocrites, well hath Isaiah prophesied of you,
saying, This people honoreth me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me.
And so the church wants to put us on guard
of merely an exterior practice of worship or fasts,
which is not united with the observance of the commandments.
Think about all the Catholics out there
who won't eat meat on Fridays during Lent,
and yet they won't go to Mass on Sundays
except for maybe Easter Sunday.
They observe the disciplines,
of the church with regard to abstinence, but transgress the third commandment of God,
keeping holy the Lord's day throughout the year. And this is what it means to honor our Lord with
the lips, but have our hearts far from him. So let us be sure to honor and love God in spirit and in
truth, by word and in fact, by loving observance of his commandments, and in doing so, enter into
eternal life. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Ad nos converse, et estum benedictum fructum ventris tui.