Look With Your Eyes, Not Your Mouth!

A Reflection on the First Reading for Sunday, July 13th, 2025:
​Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Deuteronomy
​30.10-14

​Moses spoke to the people, saying, “Obey the Lord your God by observing his commandments and decrees that are written in this book of the Law; turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

“Surely this commandment that I am commanding you today is not too hard for you, nor is it too far away. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will go up to heaven for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?’

“Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will cross to the other side of the sea for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?’

“No, the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe.”

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

“Look with your eyes, not your mouth!”

This was the infamous phrase my brother and I heard from my mother more often than I am willing to admit.  We heard it when we were rushing and couldn’t find something that we absolutely needed at that exact moment. We couldn’t (or didn’t want to) see what was most probably right in front of us. Impatience won the day all too often. 

How easy is it to run from one thing to another without really paying attention? Life is busy, or at least I make mine so by stuffing my calendar with work commitments, leisure pursuits, and squeezing some time in for play. Who has time to take it all in? But if I don’t take the time to take it all in, then I can easily forget that all the things I’m doing are supposed to make a life, not just keep me occupied.  So when I can’t find something—my keys, my phone, my lunch, my way, my people, my faith, my God—I can stop seeing.  Then I start the complaining, the pleading, the harrumphing, to anyone who will listen to help me find what I have lost. But those things are not lost at all.

Loosely, I think this is what Moses is cautioning to the Israelites, the people he’s just spent 40 years in the desert with: as you go into the promised land, don’t forget who you are and Whose you are. He was reminding the people that all they need to keep them going, to have good lives, is to know God is near to them as are His ways; so near in fact that He is in them. But life is filled with distractions and it’s easy to not see it, not know it, and to look everywhere but inside for the knowledge and understanding that gives life. 


And life—a good life, doing good things—is what we all want isn’t it? It’s what God wants for me (and you!). And the even cooler part? God wants to do life with me. He doesn’t give His commands from on high and leave me to fend for myself; it may feel like that sometimes, but through the experiences, the people, the creation He puts around me, God’s love is revealed to me and for me. A gift that is to be received and shared so that others may know that all they need to make a good life is already within them, not something they have to find somewhere out there. We have to take the time to look not just at what’s in front of us, but also look to what God has placed inside of us for “the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your hearts for you to observe.” And as my mother would say: Look with your eyes, not your mouth!



Aurea Sadi

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