Sunday Sermon: Our Responsibility in the New Covenant

The sermon that I heard delivered at church this morning included an interesting line. It was delivered by Rev. Dennis O'Donnell, who said that "many Catholics today are actually very good Jews."

What he was referring to, as he went on to explain, is that in his experiences in talking to many Catholics, it seems to be their opinion is that all they need to do is to follow the Ten Commandments.

You know the Ten Commandments: Keep Holy the Sabbath, Thou Shalt Not Kill, Honor Your Father and Mother, and all the rest? Ten rules given by God to Moses, the "Old Covenant", written down clearly on stone tablets, passed on to the Chosen People, and then to all of us down through the millenia.

Keep the Ten Commandments, and go to heaven when you die. So what's the problem? The problem is that makes you a good Jew. Nothing wrong with that at all...if you are Jewish.

But if you are a Catholic, which makes you a Christian, then more is expected of you. You see, Christians are expected to follow and as best as possible emulate the teachings of Jesus Christ.

As Paul explained in 2 Corinthians, Christ's message is written "not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts."

The Substance and Evidence That is True Faith

What is faith? A direct answer has been provided for us in the 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews. This one book of the Bible provides in its forty relatively short verses an exact meaning, and some definitive examples of this often misunderstood and often undervalued spiritual principle.

Hebrews begins with the definition, that "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." It does not leave us there with no direction as to where this quality originated, or with no practical examples that highlight the simple definition of faith.

It is the 'substance' of things hoped, their very essence or foundation. Without a solid foundation, a structure or a system, or a person, will crumble.

Faith is the substance of every good thing that we wish for ourselves and those we love. With faith, the achievement of all our dreams and goals is made possible.

It is the 'evidence' of things not seen. We cannot 'see' the being of God. We cannot look into His eyes. His arms do not wrap around us in a hug that we can feel. But when we have faith, we are actually aware of His loving presence in our daily lives.

During our best of good times, our most difficult periods of challenge, and during our most awful of tragedies we experience that we are never alone.

An Existential Threat

Israel has been a people since early Biblical times, since around the 20th generation of mankind following their creation in the Garden of Eden.

God promised the ancient land of Canaan to the Jewish patriarch Abraham and what would be his innumerable descendants in a covenant that would be in exchange for their worshiping Him as their God.

This covenant anointed them as God's 'chosen people', and He promised them his blessings as long as they would worship Him and obey His commandments.

God also promised Abraham that in regards to the nation he would "bless those who bless them, and curse those who curse them." The same covenant was made by God with Abraham's son Isaac, and through to Isaac's son Jacob, who during his life had his named changed to 'Israel'.

The sons of Israel eventually prospered in the neighboring land of Egypt before their descendants became so numerous that the Pharaohs feared and enslaved them.

After hundreds of years of slavery, the Israelites were freed by God through the leadership of Moses and the imposition of a series of plagues on the Egyptians. Under Moses and with God's help the Israelites returned to the promised land.

Beginning just over a thousand years before the birth of Jesus Christ, and continuing for almost a thousand years, various Israelite kingdoms and states ruled over the promised land. This beginning is the root of Israel's nationhood, established here on earth by the will of God Himself.

Our Lenten Burden is Light

Yesterday was 'Ash Wednesday' which marks the beginning of the 40-day period leading up to Easter marked by sacrifice and fasting known as Lent.

The origins of this pre-Easter fasting period have been disputed. Some feel that Lent traces back to the Apostolic era of Jesus' followers themselves during the years immediately after his death. Others feel that it developed later, perhaps around the time of the Council of Nicea in the early fourth century.

Whatever the origins of the custom, it has become a period of forty days based on various Biblical examples provided for such a period by Moses, Elias, and Jesus Christ Himself, who was said to have laid in the tomb for forty hours.

In the early years the actual fasting periods and methods varied in many places, but of course it generally involved someone intentionally 'giving something up' from their regular daily lives as a sacrifice in remembrance of the ultimate sacrifice that Christ had made on the cross.

Socrates spoke of the practice in the fifth century when he described some who "abstain from every sort of creature that has life", meaning that these people would eat only fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, and things of this nature. Still others, he said, ate fish only, or ate only birds and fish, or abstained from eating eggs, or ate only dry bread.

There were still others in those times who were even more strict in their fasting, taking only a couple of meals each week. The early rules of the Church on fasting said that you could only take such meals in the evening, and that meat and wine were forbidden during fasting.

Keep Holy the Sabbath Day

For Catholics it is traditionally known as the Third Commandment from God (in some churches it is listed as the fourth). It is the command from God to "Keep Holy the Sabbath", to formally set aside one period of time each week to rest from our work, and to celebrate and thank Him for all that He has given us.

For some, the sabbath observance comes on Fridays or Saturdays. For Catholics and many others, this day comes on Sunday.

For police officers, the chance to attend Mass (or to observe Shabbat in Judaism) should be something that we look forward to each week. It is our opportunity to be rested and refreshed in and with the Lord.

The work schedule of a police officer, who does the necessary work of protecting and serving the public, is such that we cannot frequently take a Saturday or Sunday completely away from the workplace.

Catholics are heartened by the fact that almost all churches now offer both a Saturday evening "Vigil Mass" along with the usual Sunday services. Thus, no Catholic officer should use work as an excuse to miss the weekly Mass obligation.

In Exodus chapter 20, Moses has climbed Mount Sinai. The people waited down below, since God had previously warned them to "set limits around the mountain to make it sacred".

As Moses stood in the presence of God Himself, the people trembled at the experience. The mountain was enveloped by thunder and lightening. The mountain itself appeared to be smoking, and a great trumpet blast was heard from the heavens. Here in the presence of the Almighty, Moses was given the basic laws of God by which man was to live.