"Circumcise Your Hearts, Therefore"

Today's Mass Readings

We continue our reflection from the book of Deuteronomy. Today’s reading provides the disposition that God expected his people to have, the motivation for this particular disposition and a clue to staying firm in that disposition. Let us reflect on each of these three aspects. First, what is that God expected Israel to be? He expected them to “fear the LORD, your God, and follow his ways exactly, to love and serve the LORD, your God, with all your heart and all your soul, to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD which I enjoin on you today for your own good” (Deut 10:12-13).

Second, what was the motivation for the Israelites to develop this disposition? “Think! The heavens, even the highest heavens, belong to the LORD, your God, as well as the earth and everything on it. Yet in his love for your fathers the LORD was so attached to them as to choose you, their descendants, in preference to all other peoples, as indeed he has now done” (Deut 10:14-15).

Third, how can Israel achieve this? “Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and be no longer stiff-necked” (Deut 12:16).

Today’s gospel reading begins with Jesus’ prediction that he would be put to death. Jesus’ life (both human and divine) offers us two different dimensions. As a human person, Jesus was to God all that God wanted Israel to be - a son who loved God and was faithful to his will. He knew his calling and lived up that calling till the very end. As the Son of God, Jesus paid the price for human sin – disobedience.

The disposition that we must have as Christians is not very different from what is prescribed in Deuteronomy. We are called to love and fear God (awe of God), to be aware and live in accordance with our divine calling, and to keep our hearts worthy for our glorious God at all times. A the same time, we must make our obedience to God a cause for the salvation of others. To do this is to be like Jesus.