Saturday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

 Lectionary: 418

Joshua continued: "Now, therefore, put away the strange gods that are among you and turn your hearts to the LORD, the God of Israel."
Then the people promised Joshua, "We will serve the LORD, our God, and obey his voice."

Children do not appear in today's first reading from Joshua, as they do in the Gospel passage, but they are very much present, especially those who will be born in the future. At Joshua's insistence the Hebrews did not hesitate to pledge themselves, their children, and a thousand generations to come as loyal subjects of the LORD. 

Joshua pointed to a huge immovable boulder as that which had heard and would remain forever as "a witness against you, should you wish to deny your God."

To this day, Catholics bring their children to the Church early in life to have them baptized. With that they renew the promise of Shechem to "Fear the LORD and serve him completely and sincerely." In the coming years they will renew that pledge with their First Communion. They will receive the Blessed Sacrament from the altar which, in Catholic tradition, is made of stone, or has a stone embedded within it, to recall the Memorial Stone at Shechem.

The Bible faithfully recalls the sins of our ancestors. 

For the three crimes, the four crimes, of Judah

I have made my decree and will not relent:

because they have rejected the Law of the Lord

and failed to keep his precepts,

because the false gods which their ancestors followed

have led them astray, (Amos 2:4-7)

 

And Judges 2:10-11

When the rest of that generation were also gathered to their ancestors, and a later generation arose that did not know the LORD or the work he had done for Israel, the Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. They served the Baals....

(BTW: We love the Bible and thank God for the Jews who remembered, recorded, and repented of their sins.) 

The United States today is caught in a severe controversy: Should we teach our children about the sins of our past? Should we accept the shame and punishing consequences of past sins, atone for the disparities and injustices that remain, and make amends? Or will those who claim our heritage as a Christian nation risk ignoring the past and accept the inevitable fading of the American promise and failure of the American Experiment? And will those who disown every form of religion recognize that loss of faith is causing our decline? 

Despite its apocalyptic threat of climate crisis, the Lord gives us time. We do not know how much time we have but it's certain that the longer we put off repentance the worse will be the consequence. Life on Earth can wait very long, human life cannot. 

The children whom the Lord blessed deserve a renewal of the vows of Shechem.