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March 15, 2023Take a minute or two and think back to a time when you were given the best gift ever. Now, where is that gift today?
A few years ago, on my birthday I posted a picture of myself on Facebook. It shows me standing in a towing company lot near downtown Saint Louis saying goodbye to my little car, Silver. The afternoon before Silver was totaled and hauled away while my wife and I walked away without scratches or bruises. A fun road trip had suddenly, unexpectedly gone very bad. Before leaving the lot, I removed our personal things from the glove box and other storage with the last item being the crucifix hanging from the rearview mirror.
In today’s first reading, Moses, the intermediary between God and His people, reminds the assembly of the great gift they have received and warns them not to forget, ignore or cast it aside. Those laws and statutes were also to be taught to their children and children’s children. In the ages following many men did throw away the map, not even stopping to ask directions. But the gift was written down to show them the way to the Promised Land.
Mathew’s Gospel tells us of Jesus giving instruction to his disciples. They hear that Jesus has no intention of changing the gift handed down in the scrolls from Moses and the prophets. He is the One sent by the Father to bring that gift to fulfillment in his very person. This is the roadmap they need to follow, the Way, that Jesus describes. The verses of the Gospel acclamation echo this greatest gift to humankind succinctly: “Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life; you have the words of everlasting life.”
