How can the Church know what to do if the people of God forget who they are? Today, Father Steve Grunow offers his homily inspired by the scripture for today’s Mass from the Old Testament Book of Deuteronomy.
There is an interesting correlation that occurs throughout the scriptures between knowing and doing. The Bible is impatient with thoughtless activism or abstract idealism. Instead, what is proposed is that once one knows who they are, then they know what it is precisely that they are supposed to do.
Therefore throughout the scriptures there are repeated reminders to Israel concerning who they are—you are the Lord’s people. The Lord has chosen you. The Lord has set you apart. You are the Lord’s beloved. Once you were no people and now you are God’s people…
These reminders about who Israel is are most often accompanied by the invitation to Israel to do something about the fact, the truth, of their identity. Knowing who they are means they also know what they are to do.
Today’s first scripture from the Old Testament Book of Deuteronomy demonstrates this correlation very well. Moses tells the people who they are, and indicates that relationship of that identity to the Law that God gives to his people—and then he makes it clear, knowing who you are you will know what to do.
Today, Our Sunday Visitor published Father Barron's further reflections on the crisis facing the Catholic Church.
"Once again we’re living in scandal times.
The 'Long Lent' that the American church endured in 2002 has now descended on the European church.
A significant difference is that this time the Pope himself has come under scrutiny.
Once again, the news media are in a frenzy—CNN has blanket coverage, the New York Times is running daily stories, and thousands of blogs are buzzing.
In preparation for a television interview, I spent an entire day reading almost everything I could find in both the American and international press (I’m currently in Rome as a visiting professor) and found the process dismaying, depressing, and dispiriting.
But what particularly struck me was this:
though the scandal has been analyzed legally, institutionally, psychologically, and culturally, it has rarely been looked at biblically—even by church representatives themselves.
And this is tragic, for the Bible, the Word of God, is the definitive lens through which the whole of reality is most rightly read, and church men and women above all should know this..."