Fascinated by the Law
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”
In this image, Darius Gilmont — a self-described Jewish, Biblical artist — depicts Moses and the Fire of Sinai. Moses stands on Mount Sinai, and a swirling colorful aura surrounding him as he holds the two tablets of the Law. We often miss — in the Christian tradition — the mystique and mysticism of the Law that permeates the other Abrahamic traditions … even when we slip into legalism ourselves. In traditions that lack or minimize the Incarnation as the centerpiece of God’s self-revelation, what rises up is a pious fascination with God’s revelation and revelatory act as the primary horizon where the human and the divine meet. A tension between Christ and the Law thus becomes inevitable, and often heats into open conflict, of the kind that we witness in this week’s Gospel. Yet this, too, is foreshadowed in Moses: for the bush that he saw burning, was not consumed.
The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, and gives wisdomto the simple.
— Psalm 19:7
Third Sunday of Lent
Texts for this Week
Prayer
Heavenly Father, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you: Look with compassion upon the heartfelt desires of your servants, and purify our disordered affections, that we may behold your eternal glory in the face of Christ Jesus; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Oh, How I Love your Law!
African-Israelites Cohane Shaul and Cohane Ben Khesid sing Ps 119:41-44 in Hebrew. Part of a group that calls themselves the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem, they live in a compound called Neve Shalom (Village of Peace). The original 138 members of the community, mostly natives of Chicago, arrived in Israel in 1969 under the leadership of Ben Ammi, after an original settlement in Liberia. The community now consists of nearly 3,000 people.
