Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8 | James 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27 | Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

God of might, giver of every good gift, put into our hearts the love of your name so that, by deepening our sense of reverence, you may nurture in us what is good and, by your watchful care, keep safe what you have nurtured. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.

Today we focus on one of the first times that God truly spoke to his people.  In the Old Testament, we find God speaking to Abraham and to Moses, to the patriarchs, not so much to the people, for in the Old Testament, the image was, if people were sinful, then God could not be connected to them because of God’s holiness and their sin and their corruption.  So in the beginning, God only spoke to the people through someone else.  In the New Testament, we have a completely different way of communicating with God.  He speaks to our hearts.

But what’s interesting about this particular theme of the Ten Commandments is this came at a very interesting point in the history of humanity.  It was during the Bronze Age.  It was 4,000 years ago.  This was a time in the history of human beings when civilization was beginning to be formed.  Governments were beginning to be formed, and the alphabet was created during this time.  The wheel was invented during this time.  So it’s interesting to think: what were people like 4,000 years ago?  What was their moral life like?  Well, there’s something in scripture that says something that I always find fascinating.  Before there was a law, there was no sin.  So in a sense, you could say there was no clarity of making a wrong decision, because there was no sense of what the right decision was.  So people basically lived the way they intended to live, the way their ancestors lived, and what they did to each other was considered the norm.  But God enters into people’s consciousness with this incredibly interesting Decalogue.  It’s called the Ten Commandments, and so what’s fascinating about these Ten Commandments is what they are and what they’re asking of people.  And so this first reading makes it clear that, when God is giving the Ten Commandments to people, he’s giving them what is considered to be the truth.  And the truth, according to James in the second reading, the truth is something that is already in all of us.  It is a sense of what is our nature, and so it’s clear that what James is saying is that, when the Ten Commandments were given, it was igniting us, connecting us to a truth that’s inside of us that was perhaps underdeveloped at the time the Ten Commandments were given, inviting people to understand, “This is who you really are.  These are the things, if you did these things, you would find a community that you wanted to live with, people guided by this wisdom.”  And when people — in the first reading it’s clear that what we’re being told is, when people see the wisdom of these Ten Commandments, they’re going to say, “Wow, these people are really intelligent.  They’re smart,” because somehow there’s something already given to everybody.  You might say the Ten Commandments are already written on our hearts.  So it’s almost like — well, it’s not almost like.  It is that God was telling people, when he gave them the Ten Commandments, that, “This is who you are.  This is your nature.” 

So let’s look at it, these Ten Commandments, because they’re clearly describing this life force that’s in a human being that, when it’s ignited with divinity, when divinity enters into it and the two become one, as it does in the New Testament, there is this force of life coming out of a person, divinity and humanity working together, living out these Ten Commandments.  And so let’s look at them, as I said, and it goes like this:  the first thing is that we need something more than ourselves.  So we need to believe in something beyond ourselves.  So the first commandment is you need to believe that there is a God who is there for you, not so much a God that you have to serve.  That was the way it was basically described in the beginning, but here’s a God who is there for you.  And the first thing he wants you to do is believe in him, believe he exists, then to allow him to be who he is, and who he is, is somebody who wants to enter into you and awaken your nature.  And what he needs you to do is spend time with him.  So one of those first three commandments is keep holy the Sabbath Day.  That just means take some time to spend time with God, listening to him, and in the other — in the Ten Commandments, it’s all about our relationship with God.  It’s don’t use his power, don’t take his power in vain.  In other words, don’t take the gifts that he has given to your nature and use them in a way that is destructive to other people.  Don’t use God’s name in vain, and when I was a child, that always meant you can’t say, “God dammit.”  And in a way, that was kind of a primitive way of saying, “Don’t use the power of God to harm anyone or to have power over someone.”  So the first three are about our relationship with divinity, intimacy with divinity, the rest primarily about our relationship with each other.

And if you listen to the gospel carefully, when God is — excuse me.  When Jesus is talking about the law and about the hypocrisy of the pharisees who have not paid attention to these core laws and have replaced them with human traditions and all kinds of regulations, what we’re hearing him saying is that, when these laws are not followed, inside of human beings, there is this list of things he makes, and they’re almost exactly the same list that the Ten Commandments are asking us to not get engaged in these things.  And so he’s saying the opposite of these laws is living inside of a person’s heart, meaning their very core, then there’s always going to be horrible destruction.  And what he’s saying to these pharisees is, “You’re not teaching the Ten Commandments anymore.  You’re teaching customs that keep you in power, and you keep people doing the things that they think are pleasing to God by these 600-plus rules and laws, and these are all customs.”  But the core of what it is they’re supposed to be — the scribes and pharisees decided not to focus on, the Ten Commandments.  It’s crazy.  Because they weren’t living them, and so they put something in its place, because people in a way, in a relationship with God, always want to say, “Well, what is God asking from me?”  Well, the 613 laws that they had were all about these customs about — many of those rules and laws made sense in terms of — it made for a better diet.  It made for better cleanliness and all that, but you had to watch how you washed your hands, how you made your bed, how you cleaned this.  All those things had become their religion, and the heart of it was missing.  

So let’s look at those other seven commandments that are talked about in the gospel in a negative way, but let’s just listen to what they’re asking, because it’s really beautiful.  First thing is there’s people around you that have given you life.  Respect those people.  Respect anyone that gives you life, increases your enjoyment of life, opens your life to what is true so you can live, in a way, engaged more in the things that mean the most to you.  So the first thing is just honor those who are there giving you life, and we tend to think, of course, parents.  It’s so interesting.  Our species is the rare species that demands so much care on the part of those who create us.  Animals can sometimes give birth to an offspring, and they get up and walk away and start eating, and they’re on their own.  I haven’t had children, but I know people that do, and it’s a commitment where it’s 24/7 for years and years before the child is able to do much of anything on their own.  Honor that.  They may not have been the best.  They may have been abusive in some ways, but honor that privilege of bringing life into the world and nurturing it.  And in your relationship with each other — it’s so simple.  Don’t lie.  Don’t steal.  Don’t kill.  Don’t break your promises.  Those, when you think about it, they’re so basic to human nature that any one of them, you know, if you don’t follow them, there’s no real integrity in the relationship.  It would destroy — any one of those left unchecked would destroy a relationship, and it’s all about relationships.  And the last two are so beautiful, in a sense, because we don’t pay much attention to them.  It’s just be satisfied with the life you have.  “It’s your life.  I created it for you.”  The people in your life, they’re there for a purpose, and we can be jealous of other people’s relationships, jealous of healthier families, jealous of people who have, I don't know, more of something that we don’t have.  Or there’s just that simple thing of, “God, look at the things they have.  I wish I had those things.”  

All of these commandments then are things that, I think, anyone with a little bit of consciousness would say these were a good idea, but what happens when regulations and rules get out of control, in particular religion, and people are asked to do things that, when they think about it, don’t really match up with these Ten Commandments, things that aren’t so essential.  All we need to do is look at the world today.  It’s so fascinating to see how many people in the world, when a rule and a regulation are place on them, and they don’t believe that it’s necessary or they feel they have a right not to do it — wear a mask, don’t go to these places, don’t do this, don’t do this, all of that.  Look at the reaction in human beings when they are told to do something that they really don’t believe is important, and they are violent against that sort of thing.  And you might say, “Well, come on.  Get a life.  Understand the thing more.”  All I want to underscore is the fact that there’s something so negative about a regulation and a rule that one doesn’t feel is the most essential thing or isn’t an essential thing and it impinges upon their freedom, and that’s what’s happened to religion.  So many people have left religion, and they say, “I’m no longer religious.”  Well, they usually mean I’m no longer Catholic, or I’m no longer Methodist, or I’m no longer Baptist, and every one of those religions have certain things in them that are customs that you have to do if you’re a part of that religion.  And people say, “They don’t make any sense to me anymore,” and therefore they leave, and they go off to find something else.  And all I’m saying is there’s a wisdom in what they’re doing that is worth paying attention to as a religious leader that I am, a Catholic priest.  I need to listen to what they’re saying, because as I say, these regulations don’t make sense to them anymore, and when the church refuses to change them or refuses to listen to exceptions, it really creates a tremendous, unnecessary separation between that religion and that person.  Most people don’t leave a religion because of the Ten Commandments or even because of the ritual, because ritual is so powerful.  But they will leave a religion that’s asking for things that they no longer believe are the right of a religion to refuse to allow you the freedom that you feel is yours to be able to accomplish something.  It’s interesting and fascinating to me how many people are in that position, and what’s the solution?  Well, the solution is to always go back to the religion that you left perhaps.  Not that you have to go back to it necessarily.  I’m not pushing that as a have-to, but there’s so many things in religion that are valuable: the rituals, the community, all that kind of stuff.  And just it’s so important to somehow understand that the core of what religion is supposed to be, and Catholicism tries to really stress this, is your human conscience.  And you have a right to be able to make decisions about things that really matter to you when they don’t seem to matter that much to the institution that you belong to, and they’re more of a custom than they are a commandment.  

So we live in a very fascinating time, but I think the most important thing is to keep in mind, at the heart of all religion, in terms of regulations and rules, there are just ten, and those ten are a connection to your essence, your nature.  And as long as you’re living in those and as long as your religion primarily is focused on those, it will be a relationship that brings an abundant life.  And it never will tend to feel like it is an obligation that is unfair and there is then resistance that is so natural to human nature that, I think, for it to be written off is selfish, is a mistake on the part of religions.  We need to listen to the heart of people and what they really believe in, what they know, and trust them.  

 Father, your will, your desire is that we become who you created us to be. The rules and laws, the only ones you’ve given us are those that awaken us to that nature that is so embedded in everything that we choose to do or decide not to do. So bless us with the wisdom that comes from these Ten Commandments. Awaken them so they are no longer obligations but simply the most wise, prudent and loving thing that we can do to care for one another and to bring your life to fullness in one another. And we ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.