GOD'S SPIRIT IS IN OUR HEARTS
In the Letter to
the Hebrews, we hear God will make a new kind of pact or covenant with the
people, and we are to understand this as referring to the followers of Jesus
Christ. The difficulty is that the Israelites of old broke the covenant. In
this new period, God "will put [His] laws in their minds and [He} will
write them upon their hearts" (Heb 8:10). The old Israel apparently
observed the covenant simply as a set of laws, without a corresponding interior
commitment. It seems to be a mistaken path we take in religion when we try to
save ourselves. We have not broken the letter of the law and that should be
enough, right? We then find we stay on the level of external matter only. What
our heavenly Father asks of all of us is internal commitment to our part of the
relationship in the covenant He made with us. This takes a commitment of prayer
and reflection, and true discernment of our call from God. For God calls us to
be genuine in our lives, and true in our relationship with Him and with others.
What is God's call
on your life? When Jesus chose twelve men for the task of preaching the Good
News for God's Kingdom, He choose very ordinary, simple people to do
extraordinarily well in spreading God's Word, of healing, forgiveness, and of
communicating His love. God takes ordinary people like us along with what we
can offer and uses it for greatness.
In the responsorial
psalm we acclaim, "Kindness and truth shall meet" (Ps 85:11). God
will show us the way if we let Him in!