Finding God in the Fine Print
Normally I find nothing humorous at all about the book of Deuteronomy. However, in a recent meditation a ray of whimsy hit me, and the lesson was this. I still have a lot to discover when it comes to the Bible, and in the Bible there is plenty of fine print.
In this case Deuteronomy 26: 16-19 recounts a conversation between God and the people of Israel. Near the end of it God makes it clear that they need to observe all the statutes and decrees, and not just some of them. Then the question popped up. Knowing human nature, how long did it take for God and the Israelites to pound out the details of this agreement? Would God have an easier time driving a bargain with the monastic chapter? Probably not, for the simple reason that we monks can edit the daylights out of any document in front of us.
This brings up an important point to mull over. With all the legal language we find in Deuteronomy and later in church law and tradition, it’s easy to slip into the mindset that if we do our part of the deal, then God is somehow bound by the terms of the agreement. In the process we lose sight of the fact that the statutes and decrees are not ends in themselves. They are merely ingredients for a long and lasting and beautiful relationship with God.
Given that, we should not be surprised by the answer Jesus gives us when we ask what we must do to be saved. The answer is short and sweet. We must love the Lord our God with all our heart, our mind and our soul; and our neighbor as ourself. Any answer short of that simply misses the point. And if our first impulse might be “Yikes, why so much?”, then we should wonder why we would settle for anything less.
NOTES
+During the last week I had an overly full schedule of meetings, but the best of them was an annual health review with my doctor. I was surprised to discover that apparently I have better health than I deserve. Clearly God works in mysterious ways, but who am I to question why?
+This last weekend the abbey guest house hosted a group of deacon candidates from the Archdiocese of Saint Paul & Minneapolis. We were happy to have them join us for Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours.
+During Lent we scale back a bit on some of our congregational singing. Nevertheless the abbey church hosted an organ and cello recital on Friday evening and a concert of sacred music on Sunday.
+On 24 February I presided at the abbey Mass, and today’s post is a slight edit of the sermon that I delivered.
+The top photo in today’s post is a page from a commentary by Gilbert de la Porée on the Letters of Paul, copied ca. 1140-50. The larger print shows text from Saint Paul, while the fine print is Gilbert’s commentary. Below that is a leaf from a Bible, ca. 1260, crafted in the Netherlands. Both of these are housed at the V & A Museum in London. At bottom is a decommissioned 18th-century Torah Scroll, housed in Alcuin Library at Saint John’s University. As one can easily note, there’s a lifetime of mulling to be done there.