Saturday of the First Week of Lent
“16 “This very day the Lord your God is commanding you to observe these statutes and ordinances, so observe them diligently with all your heart and with all your soul. 17 Today you have obtained the Lord’s agreement: to be your God; and for you to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, his commandments, and his ordinances, and to obey him. 18 Today the Lord has obtained your agreement: to be his treasured people, as he promised you, and to keep all his commandments; 19 for him to set you high above all nations that he has made, in praise and in fame and in honor; and for you to be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he promised”Deuteronomy 26:16-19.
“43 You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be children of your Father in heaven, for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the gentiles do the same? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” Matthew 5:43-48.
Both readings speak strongly of commandments that push beyond our comfort zone. Moses admits this will create a “treasured” people who are “high above all nations”
(see verses 18 & 19). Commandments are needed to help us stay on the path to Christ. Love and grace alone are sufficient for the more mature among us.
But Jesus obviously knows we need the commandments in order to love our enemies and pray for our persecutors. Based on our ordinary human motivations, Jesus points out, makes us unlikely to love anyone except those who love us.
So in these days of Lent pray for the desire to do all that Christ demands.
We must love as Jesus loves. Make that you prayerful desire today.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.
From the Bible:
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” John 13:34-35.
“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”
Romans 5:8.
“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” Galatians 2:20.
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