My name is Don and I’ve been a Catholic priest now for over 50 years, and during that time I keep going back to the same readings over and over again, only to discover that they contain something I never understood was there before. It gives me new enthusiasm and excitement for the message that keeps revealing itself, and I pray that the message that I’m sending you will be valuable, and if you find it so, please share these podcasts with your friends. Thank you. Good morning. Today we celebrate the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time. The opening prayer O God, who show the light of your truth to those who go astray, so that they may return to the right path, give all who for the faith they profess, are counted Christians, the grace to reject whatever is contrary to the name of Christ, and to strive after all that does it honor your Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.

Amen. A Reading from the Old Testament from the book of Deuteronomy 30, 1014 Moses said to the people, if only you would heed the voice of the Lord your God, and keep his commandments and statutes that are written in the book of the law, when you return to the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul, this command that I enjoin on you today is not too mysterious and remote for you. It’s not up in the sky that you should say, who will go up in the sky to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may carry it out? Nor is it across the sea that you should say, who will cross the sea to get it for us and tell us of it that we may carry it out? No, it’s something very near to you already in your mouths and in your hearts. You have only to carry it out.

The Word of the Lord. Responsorial Psalm Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live. I pray to you, O Lord, for the time of your favor. O God, in your great kindness, answer me with your constant help. Answer me, O Lord, for bounteous is your kindness in your great mercy turned toward me. Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live.

I’m afflicted and in pain. Let your saving help, O God, protect me. I will praise the name of God in song, and I will glorify him with thanksgiving. Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live. See you lowly ones, and be glad, you who seek God, may your hearts revive, for the Lord hears the poor and his own who are in bonds he spurns not. Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live.

For God will save Zion and rebuild the cities of Jerusalem. The descendants of his servants shall inherit it, and those who love his name shall inhabit it. Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live. A reading from the New Testament The Letter of St. Paul to the Colossians 1:15 20 Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible.

Whether thrones or dominions or principalities or power, all things were created through him, and for him he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body of the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn of the dead, that in all things He Himself might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile all things for him, making peace by the blood of his cross through him, whether those on earth or those in heaven. The Word of the Lord. Your words, Lord, are spirit and life.

You have the words of everlasting life. Hallelujah. The gospel for this Sunday is taken from St. Luke 10:25, 37 There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test Jesus and said, teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus said to him, what is written in the law? How do you read it?

He said in reply, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. He replied to him, you have answered correctly, do this and you will live. But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, and who is my neighbor? Jesus replied, a man fell victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. They stripped and beat him and went off, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

Likewise, a Levite came to the place, and when he saw him he passed by on opposite side. But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight. He approached. The victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged him. Then he lifted him up on his own animal, took him to an inn, and cared for him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper with the instructions, take care of him.

If you spend more than what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way back. Which of these Three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers victims. He answered the one who treated him with mercy. Jesus said to him, go and do likewise. The Gospel of the Lord. Sam Sa this particular set of readings goes into something so essential, so basic to our understanding of our relationship with God, with ourselves, with our neighbor.

It delves into the very interesting and dynamic place where we every day make decisions about how we’re going to act, what we’re going to do, what we’re going to say. It’s fascinating if you look at the way in which God has continually worked with people. He started his relationship with them in a garden. And the garden is so important in terms of setting the tone for what’s to come later. And to me, it’s not a place of condemnation of the human race, saying there’s something deeply evil and wrong with them. I think that’s a misunderstanding.

I think the truth is it’s something about revealing who God is and who human beings are and what the relationship is going to engage them, the humans in. And it was a question of who is going to determine what is true, what is real. And God, from the very beginning, planned to bring human beings into the world at a stage in their development which is way, way different than most any other creature that God has created. Human beings come into the world completely incapable of living without a human being. Some force outside of them, sustaining them and taking care of them and feeding them and nurturing them and then teaching them and training them on how to live. And we have this period of time between when a child is considered to be an adult, someone responsible, someone fully formed.

And I guess in a way, we think of it as age 18. The more I think about it, and now that I’ve lived a very long time, I think that kind of full adulthood, meaning being fully who you were intended to be, comes much later than 18, 19, or 20. Our brains are not even fully formed in terms of discerning what ramifications come from our choices until we’re in our mid-20s. So let’s just imagine that we need some kind of outside guidance for a very, very long time before we’re able to, in a sense, make our own decisions. So law, regulations, statutes, rules are essential to our development, to our growth. And so we see in that first encounter with human beings that there is something in human beings that is God given, that is intentionally placed there.

And it’s something that resists the law. Because the law is not to be the core of how we end up living our lives. We’re not to be told what to do, how to think, how to decide things from outside of us. But it has got to come ultimately from inside of us. And that inside of us is divinity, dwelling in union, in sync with who we are. The movement is from an autonomous human being who needs rules and regulations and.

And statutes, and a person who is motivated by some force that is so incredibly mysterious and personal that we can’t even make a distinction between divinity and our humanity. It’s so commingling and so perfect. It’s not like just God lives in me and then I go and find him in my heart. No, he is me and I am Him. That’s what spirituality leads us to. And in a sense, we need to not outgrow the need for rules and regulations, but to somehow make sure that they are not the thing that motivates us, that guides us in making all of our choices.

So the main thing that we learn from the Garden of Eden is human beings do not necessarily like being told what to do. But yet, even in that moment, it wasn’t so much. They didn’t want a rule or a law, but they didn’t know who to follow which rules and laws. Because in a way, they were told they were going to follow a law that was God’s law, and that was not to eat of it. But then along comes this other force that says, no, no, there’s another law. No, the other law is no, if you, you know, God doesn’t want you to eat of this tree because it’s going to have a negative impact, you know, so basically he’s jealous.

And if you eat of this tree, you’re going to be like God. And God kind of likes to be the boss. I mean, I’m really exaggerating right now, but it’s fun. Just imagine it some way like this. But in any way, something logically in them said, no, I’m not going to follow that law. And they broke it.

And then God said, okay, it’s clear to me that you need to be out there in the world, and that’s what you want. You want to go out and make your own decisions, choose your own rules and regulations, go for it. And so he let them go, made clothes for them before they left, and put an angel at the door saying, don’t come back here to try to eat of wisdom, the tree of wisdom, because you’re going to have to learn what wisdom is. You could have eaten it from the very beginning. But the story is, human beings were not made to go right to the fullness of who they are. But they started where they were in terms of their development and consciousness.

So we have this beautiful then image of this God who is a God who takes care of his people. And one of the ways in which he does it is he finally forms a community through Abraham. And then they get into trouble, and then they’re enslaved, and then they’re on this journey. And that journey is towards freedom, towards finding the place that is their place. Their place of milk and honey. Now, if you can feel what I just said in terms of your own journey, you’ll know that whenever we go back to these stories, as we do over and over again, it’s not curiosity that brings us into these stories to wonder how God worked in the past.

No, all these stories are loaded with an experience that people had. That is our experience. We’re experiencing these things. So these are images that should stimulate in us an awareness of our own personal journey with God. With God. So it places us in this world.

We have a family of origin. The family of origin has certain statutes, difference between a commandment and a statute. A commandment is a law that comes from God, that is universal, always applicable. And the Ten Commandments are pretty simple. It’s all about right relationships with God and with human beings. Verse 3, very clear.

God is the only God. There aren’t other gods, there’s only one. And he wants you to spend time with Him. So keep holy. A Sabbath day. A day where you listen to him, reflect upon what he teaches and who he is and what he’s doing in your life and in the world.

And then the last is, you know, don’t ever use his power in a way that he would not approve. Don’t take his name in vain. And then the rest are right relationships with each other, with those who give us life, with all our dealings with each other in terms of being truthful, being honest, being, you know, caring for the rights of others, not taking life away from people. Don’t lie, don’t steal, don’t kill, don’t allow corruption, don’t let things be adulterated with corruption. And then stop envying other people. So it’s a beautiful, simple description of a law that is described then in the reading from Deuteronomy.

Because that commandment that I just described to you is already in our very being. It’s not up in the sky. It’s not somewhere else. We have to go get it. It’s not anything other than, you know it, it’s in your mouth. Meaning they’ve Memorized it.

You memorized everything. You didn’t have a book to go to. They memorized the Commandments. And this is a foretaste of what will come later in the. In the new, in the Old Testament, where it’s clear that this law that is written on a tablet of stone will one day be written on your hearts. And that’s where we start this set of readings.

God has given you a commandment that is part of your very nature. And as you evolve and change, you’ll grow into it. But then we also have something else going on, and that is we have this sense of when we are engaged in any kind of community like the Jews were engaged in a community, they had regulations called statutes. And that’s the. To make a distinction between rules and I mean, laws and statutes. Laws are commandments that are so fundamental they can never be broken.

But statutes change. And they’re the ways in which some corporations, some institutions, some family system will say, these are the rules and regulations. If you live in this, this is how you act. And those are statutes. And don’t confuse them with the laws that are written in your heart. But the statutes are interesting because they are constantly calling us to a kind of disciplined life.

And that disciplined life is something that is really important to understand because the disciplined life can be an excuse for not doing the work that we are called to do. And that is to in flesh or allow the Commandments, the Ten Commandments, to become a very intimate, integral part of who we are. And statutes can get in the way, and statutes can take the place of the rules and laws. By statutes, I mean, we have all these regulations in. The Jews had 613 rules and laws. And if you paid attention to all of those, you maybe had a sense that you were doing everything that God was wanting you to do.

But the commandments got sort of lost. At least they seem to be lost by those who ran the temple. Because the Ten Commandments are about love and the statutes are about control. And there’s a big difference. And so what you see in the Gospel is, you know, someone coming with this. It’s a scholar of the law who is to test Jesus and that, you know, Jesus was the one who supposedly broke the laws.

He wasn’t breaking laws, he was breaking statutes. And so he was keeping the laws. So, you know, basically Jesus said, well, what’s the law? And he said, well, he gives them the commandments. And he says, you’re right, that’s it. Live by those.

But here’s the thing that the Statutes really get in the way of us being who we’re called to be, because statutes are not based in a truth that comes from God, but in a need that the person who’s running the institution has in order to keep order. So when you start living by statutes, you’re in trouble, or at least you can be in trouble. Because the idea is, if you are going to be a part of this group, this company, this religion, whatever, and all these statues are there, if you don’t follow these statues, you’re kicked out. You’re separated from this operation. Now, when you think about that, if you substitute the Ten Commandments for statutes, things that are not really basic and core to human nature, and you start living in those, you’re living in a world that is extremely dangerous. And what it leads to is allowing statutes to stand and follow them, even though they are destructive and harmful to human beings.

That’s the danger. So what Jesus then goes on to say, well, you know, if you take all those Ten Commandments, you take them all together, there’s something they’re based in. It’s called love. But I’ll use another word, mercy. So mercy is an ingredient that is in the law that has the right and the responsibility to override statutes. So what does that mean?

It simply means that God has a rule, a law that is based in how things impact people. And things like statutes can be very comforting and give everybody a sense of where they stand and makes things flow. And it’s the way business works, and that’s the way the bank works, that’s the way the IRS works. Those are all statutes. Okay, we’ll follow them if you want. Live in this country, blah, blah, blah.

All that kind of stuff makes sense, except it comes at times when those statutes cause enormous pain in someone and they simply almost destroy them and they’re in pain. And so Jesus said, there’s something based in that law, the Ten Commandments called love, that is filled with mercy. And you’re going to feel it once that law becomes integrated into who you are. And. And the feeling is compassion. Because the Ten Commandments are fundamentally about honoring the dignity and the value of every single human being.

And when that person is honored and held in esteem and something is taking that esteem and that. That value away from them, when they are causing them enormous pain and suffering and sickness and death and all that, there’s something in human beings who understand, who have made the Ten Commandments part of their life. They’ll cry out and they’ll say no, that can’t happen. And they do that by not so much destroying the regulation or the statute, but they care for the person who’s suffering. That’s at the heart of the law, that it’s all about caring for people. And the oil that he pours into the wound is the oil of anointing someone to be their fullness and to honor their own dignity.

And the wine is forgiveness. It’s a beautiful image of what can happen to a human heart when it moves from regulations to the heart of the law, which is love and compassion. And you know what? When you feel that compassion, you see it in someone else. It’s so easy to start making the distinctions between what is core to human nature’s needing this kind of rule and law of love and how dangerous and destructive statutes and regulations can be. And it gives you wisdom Foreign Let us pray.

Father, your heart beats one with our heart. Your longing for those that you brought into this world will find fullness and life here. And when that becomes part of our heart, we are filled with this great gift of mercy. Help us to understand how to turn it into those ways that can help people not only endure the pain that they’re in, but change a world that causes that pain. And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen. The music in this program was composed and produced by Ryan Harner.

I’m excited for the opportunity to awaken your spiritual journey. If you enjoy this program, please subscribe and share it with a friend. This ministry also needs your support, so make a one time or recurring tax deductible donation on our website. Thank you so much for your listenership and your continued support. Without it, this program would not be possible.