Wednesday March 18, 2009 of the Third week in Lent

Wednesday March 18, 2009 of the Third Week in Lent
Readings :Deuteronomy 4: 1, 5-9 Psalm 147 Matthew 5: 17-19
Psalm Response: Praise the Lord, Jerusalem

Moses reminds the Nation of Israel, although their neighboring Nations have their imagined deities, none has One so near to them as do they. He has saved them from slavery, rescued them from captivity and is bringing them to the land He promised to Abraham.
No other nation is so privileged as to have their god grant them a law, written on tablets but especially on their hearts. Ordinances, not burdens, they can all abide and which will enable them to be fair, impartial, and forgiving as He is.
They are enjoined to learn them, teach them to their children and grandchildren, so the next generations will also know and keep them faithfully.

The psalm and response are further imprecations to God in thanksgiving for His mercy and compassion.
We, too, should offer our prayers hoping He will not remember our sins but will proffer the Grace to always abide with Him.

Jesus, at the end of His beatitudes, where He seemed to proclaim a new way, puts the disciples to rest by declaring, in no uncertain terms, the efficacy of the Law. So much so, He even sanctified the accent marks and the instructions on the use of vowels essential to knowing and understanding the Hebrew language.
In our own day, people, even Catholics, wonder about the use of Latin in the official documents of the Church. We are quite aware of the changing nature of the English words where, an innocuous term may become salacious within a lifetime.(19th Century, intercourse meant conversation/discussion; you don’t have to be reminded what the connotation is now!). Latin is a dead language and means the same as it did centuries ago.

The problem, for us, is, we teach our children by our example, not necessarily our words.
Consequently, we, not they, will be on the hook for the mistakes and misdeeds they commit because Daddy or Mommy did it!

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