You shall not bear hatred for your brother or sister in your heart.
Though you may have to reprove your fellow citizen,
do not incur sin because of him.
Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against any of your people.
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
I am the LORD.”
The Book of Leviticus is called "the holiness code." Its essential command is "Be holy, for I, the LORD, your God, am holy." The Chosen People understand their covenant with God, "Ever present in your midst, I will be your God, and you will be my people."
The penultimate chapter (26) lists the assured blessings when the people remain faithful to the Lord, reflecting the holiness of God (verses 3-13). To emphasize the advantages of these blessings Chapter 26 lists in even greater, and more horrific, detail the curses for failure to live in this manner (verses 14-45).
Reneging on the covenant is not an option. The Lord will always remain faithful to the Covenant and will always hold the people to it. They will enjoy blessings for their fidelity and suffer curses for infidelity. They will not be able to walk away from it.
Perhaps this is why some Christian adults deny Baptism to infants and small children. They want the young adult children to decide for themselves if they will enter the bonds of Baptism. They should know the terms of the covenant.
Our Catholic tradition assumes that the blessings of the covenant are so extremely attractive and the penalties for sin are so dreadful that no sane person would not choose to accept the privileges of Baptism, Eucharist and Confirmation. They will as eagerly attend Mass, study the scriptures, and enter the sacred bonds of Marriage, religious life or the Priesthood. Even the single life without a life-partner is more attractive than life without God's covenant.
Our culture and civilization has been deeply influenced by our Jewish-Christian heritage.
I have been reading a "documentary novel" by Katherine Boo, Behind the Beautiful Forevers. She combines the observations of a journalist with the skills of a novelist to create a book worthy of Charles Dickens or Sinclair Lewis. She describes a Mumbai slum, neglected and exploited by the wealthy and powerful, religiously rooted only in anachronistic Muslim and Hindu religions.
I read the book, of course, as an American Catholic priest and I look for traces of religion. I am only half-way through the book (precisely 59%) but it seems their spiritual traditions offer little hope for the future or satisfaction in the present. There is only survival and its demands. Religious traditions like the dowry, burka and purdah are ill-suited and too burdensome for life in the slum. If they offer a vague connection to a happier past, they cost far too much in the present.
I wonder how much hope a Catholic or Christian missionary might bring to such a place. Would this person attempt to build a church or chapel there, only to have it shredded by recyclers who sell it piece by piece to the scrap industry?
The essential gift of our western religious tradition would be our friendly, optimistic vision: God is good. God will bless the people who live by faith, trusting that in his will they will find reasonable prosperity and realistic optimism.
America was built on the belief that honesty in business and government, solidarity with one's neighbors and fellow citizens, hard work and education could erect a stable economy. Some parts of the nation are still plagued by corruption, illiteracy, racism and poverty; a tightly-braided rope that anchors them in despair. God is not good to them; the curses of Leviticus lie heavily upon the land.
Boo's book describes a world that never knew anything but corruption, illiteracy, racism and poverty. Religion and culture have disappeared. In the slum, as on Wall Street, Greed is Good. Therein lies the link between our world and theirs.
Last Sunday and today, we have been hearing Jesus teach a new way of life, "You have heard that it was said...; but I say to you...."
God's way will always be peculiar. It will always represent a choice to us and our children. The promises of Greed will lure us and our children to the glitter of Wall Street and the grime of the slum.
Yet even so, even while they are in their enemies’ land, I will not reject or loathe them to the point of wiping them out, thus making void my covenant with them; for I, the LORD, am their God.
I will remember for them the covenant I made with their forebears, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt before the eyes of the nations, that I might be their God. I am the LORD. (Leviticus 26: 44-45)
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I love to write. This blog helps me to meditate on the Word of God, and I hope to make some contribution to our contemplations of God's Mighty Works.
Ordinarily, I write these reflections two or three weeks in advance of their publication. I do not intend to comment on current events.
I understand many people prefer gender-neutral references to "God." I don't disagree with them but find that language impersonal, unappealing and tasteless. When I refer to "God" I think of the One whom Jesus called "Abba" and "Father", and I would not attempt to improve on Jesus' language.
You're welcome to add a thought or raise a question.