Today’s first reading is about the call to commitment, as seen in verse 12: “And now, Israel, what does the Lord, your God, ask of you?” Here, Isreal is called to “fear the Lord, your God, and to follow his ways exactly, to love and serve the Lord, your God, with all your heart and all your soul, to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord which I enjoin on you today” . . . and I love this last clause . . . “for your own good.” This is what is good for us, and the Lord who has created and loves us says . . . This is for your own good! God wants us to choose life, to choose the way of God, and to remember and trust this love from the ONE who is above all.
The text cries out that God, “has no favorites, accepts no bribes, executes justice for the orphans and the widow, and befriends the alien, feeding and clothing him. So, we must befriend the alien, for we were once aliens ourselves in the land of Egypt.” We’re being challenged to remember God’s faithfulness to us because this is how we’re supposed to live.
Deuteronomy stands as a prophetic invitation to us to love our God with everything and to circumcise our hearts, thereby living in a loving relationship with the God who is the Lord of all. To be the people who don’t take bribes but join God in implementing justice for the orphan, the widow, and the alien, providing them food and clothing because we pray and long for the day when indeed, those who know this great love of God are, indeed, far more numerous than the stars.
Let us Pray:
Loving God, you are the one true God, the one true King, and the one true Lord of all. Bless us with the strength and wisdom to remember who we are and where we’ve come. We pray, as Saint Peter Julian Eymard did, for those foreigners, the marginalized, and those in need, to bring them to the Eucharist and care for their spiritual and physical needs, for we are all to love You, Lord, with all of our hearts, all of our souls, and all of our minds. Bless us to know that we are to love our neighbors… and those residing in a land that is not their homeland… as ourselves… for we were all once aliens. Amen.
