Precepts

Homily for Saturday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A high school teacher, whom we will call Mr. Brown for the sake of convenience, asked his students each year to select a favorite precept (defined as “words to live by”). Each year he collected these precepts; after seven years, he was encouraged to publish a book sharing the precepts that he had received from his students over the years. As an example, the precept that appears on the 26th of July reads “There is no wealth but life,” a precept that one of his students had jotted down as they were reading an essay by John Ruskin.

Many of the precepts were about the things that were important in the lives of his students. As he paged through his book on a daily basis, he took it upon himself to write down on each page five things for which he was grateful. After several years, the book was filled with scribbled gratitudes.

Moses gives the children of Israel ten precepts from the Lord. When the people hear these precepts, they respond by saying “We will do everything that the Lord has told us.” They formed a covenant with God who promised that he would be their God and they would be God’s people. As we know from our own human experience, failure and disobedience and even rebellion cropped up like the weeds in today’s Gospel text. At the same time, the children of Israel realized that God never forsook them, never turned away from them, and always fulfilled his part of the bargain.

In our own lives, weeds – that is to say temptations and failures - inevitably occur. Most of us look upon temptations negatively. However, there is a more positive way to look at them. Each temptation is an opportunity to renew our promise of fidelity to God. Each temptation that we successfully dismiss could be called a reason to be grateful because we know that our own strength is never enough to avoid temptations. It is only by accepting God’s grace in our lives, God’s strength in our lives, that we are able to remain faithful to God’s commands.

One source of that grace, one source of that strength comes to us each time we receive the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus in communion. The very word Eucharist means thanksgiving, means gratitude. Mr. Brown’s Journal of Precepts that he had gathered over the years became a source of gratitude in his life. If you keep a journal, perhaps you could include a favorite precept and a list of things for which you are grateful. In just such a way, we can keep the garden of our lives free of weeds.