Wise Up

A Reflection on the ​First Reading for Sunday, September 1st, 2024:
Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Deuteronomy
4.1-2, 6-8

“Now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. You must neither add anything to what I command you nor take away anything from it, but keep the commandments of the Lord your God with which I am charging you. You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!’ For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is whenever we call to him? And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today?”

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

I love worshipping at the monthly Ukrainian Divine Liturgy in Dartmouth. They celebrate the rite of St. John Chrysostom, which is in union with the Catholic Mass — it just takes a different form.

I once heard a Catholic observe that she loved the Divine Liturgy because “it’s just so totally not about you.” I laughed at that, and I agree. They hand you a booklet with the English translation, and you’re off to the races. We’re singing, we’re praising, we’re interceding, we’re begging for Mary’s help, oh hang on, now we’re singing again ….

One of my favourite parts of the Divine Liturgy is that, before we’re to read Scripture, the priest says, “Wisdom! Let us be attentive.” I now say this to myself as the lector approaches the ambo during Catholic Mass. It is a reminder to my heart and mind that what is about to be proclaimed is God’s divine revelation, ever ancient, ever new — not something I’ve heard a thousand times, not something (in the case of the Old Testament) that is no longer relevant in my Easter-people life. It is Wisdom. I must be attentive.

That’s seems to be precisely what Moses is doing here in Deuteronomy. He’s underscoring that what he’s about to tell Israel came directly from the mouth of God. These are neither arbitrary rules nor suggested guidelines. They might seem strange, very strange, even dangerous in the midst of their surroundings, but this is God’s Law.

This is not so different from us, these 2600-odd years later. When the priest says (or we say to ourselves), “Wisdom! Let us be attentive,” we too are about hear some pretty weird stuff. Stuff that, once we leave the church, does not make those around us remark at how “wise,” “intelligent” or “just” we are as a people of God.  Nevertheless, at our Baptism, our priest prayed over us Christ’s words, “Ephphatha, be opened!” Our ears were sacramentally opened to hear God’s Wisdom. At that moment, God prepared us for every Mass, every reading of Scripture, even the boring, weird, and seemingly outdated ones. He is revealing his divine plan for all of salvation, even when it’s hard to find sometimes.

And the point of all of this is to bring us back to Himself. We in Halifax are the same as the Hebrews sitting in Moab. We listen to His Word in our minds so that we can be ready receive Him in our hearts in the Eucharist. His Wisdom runs ahead of His Presence. Let us be attentive.



Kate Mosher

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