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authority
of love. This is not a God intent on soliciting
allegiance through fear based obedience. True
faith is built on trust that matures into love
and obeys out of reverence and honor. To believe
in God is to believe in the goodness of God.
The readings
today give two faces of this reality. The word
fear conveys two basic meanings. One is that of
fright, or anxiety concerning punishment or
harm. The other meaning is to revere; to honor
with reverence and dignity the authority of one
worthy of such allegiance.
In the
time of Moses, the people had an awesome, yet
frightening experience of God at Mt. Horeb. At
this time the people asked for a mediator
between themselves and God. Moses for a time
filled this role and the people took the words
of Moses to be as the words of God. Today’s
reading has Moses asking God to raise up another
prophet from among the people to be the voice of
the Lord to whom the people will listen. God is
pleased with the request and promises another
prophet from among them who will speak his word.
This
establishes a long line of prophets through
history who had varying degrees of success due
to the rebellion and disobedience of the people.
Ultimately, the reading refers to Jesus, who is
and will forever be the final mediator between
God and ourselves. We need a mediator. God, in
the fullness of the divine self, is too much for
us. This is the perfect gift of Jesus, the human
divine one, who is not only the mediator of God,
but is in fact the Son of the Father who speaks
with authority and truth of the Father’s love.
The
gospel relays another face of fear based faith
that was customary at the time of Jesus. While
teaching in the synagogue,
conclusion to this
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