Bible Readings: Exodus 20:1-17; Psalm 19; Matthew 13:18-23
This pandemic brought out so many things about people both positive and negative. One of the things we have observed more than ever before especially in the Church (which I know is not peculiar to our parish) is how much some people resist any form of law. Some people get upset when told where to sit, many refuse to sanitize their hands or wear facemasks without a just reason. Some people insist on doing the exact opposite of what they are told to do.
I have heard many people argued that there are so many laws in the Catholic Church, laws concerning the sacraments, the liturgy, the moral life etc., they want a Church where people can do whatever they feel like doing without being restricted.
Dear friends, after God created heaven and earth and the human person, He gave them a law. In the first reading of today, God gave Ten Commandments to His chosen people, commandments to guide their relationships with him and with one another, commandments to check their conduct and lifestyle.
As human persons, we all need just laws and wise principles to keep our tendencies under check, just laws do not take away our freedom but preserve them and they keep us focused, they keep us on the right track and make our lives more human, meaningful and safe.
A home where there are no formative laws is a chaotic home; this is the state of many homes today. The children can go out and come in when they want, they can do whatever they like, they can play games from morning to night, they can act without manners on the table, no principles, no wise laws, sometimes they have a parody of regulations without enforcement. Children in such homes grow up to become rebels and social misfits.
As human persons too, we need wise principles and regulations to guide our lives and our conduct, we need to set rules and live within them, rules on what and how we eat and drink, how we relate with people, boundaries we should not cross, how we dispense our resources, where we go and where we shouldn’t go, limits that we should not go beyond, laws on how we spend our time etc.
The laws and principles by which we live, reveal the depth of our wisdom and maturity, how far we can go in life and how much we can achieve, they help to keep us under check and enable us to live purposeful lives.
What are your laws? What principles guide your conduct? What are the standards and boundaries you have set for yourself and those under your charge?
Let us pray today for wisdom to generate sensible laws for ourselves, for discipline to live within the provision of reasonable principles and the spirit of obedience to respect just laws for our own physical and spiritual well being and the well being of others.
Sermon by Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Baraka-Gukena Okami July 23, 2021