Johannine Hours   - March 1995 -  Deuteronomy 6,1-9

[The "Johannine hours" are meant as a way of seeking God in silence and
prayer in the midst of our daily life. During the course of a day, take
a moment to read the Bible passage with the short commentary and to
reflect on the questions which follow. Afterwards, a small group people
can meet to share what they have discovered and perhaps for a time of
prayer.]

In the ancient world, there were many gods. Every aspect of life had its
tutelary deities: there were the gods of the home, the gods of work, of
travel, and so on. If the diversity of life was thus clearly manifested,
its unity remained more precarious.

In this context, the heart of the religion of the people of the Bible is
all the more surprising: faith in one God alone (v.4), a God without
peers. This does not imply so much the non-existence of other gods
(explicit monotheism, a formal denial of their existence, is a
relatively late phenomenon) as the call for a total commitment. In other
words, confessing one God is not an abstract proposition but a concrete
choice: we are going to follow the Lord and nobody else, "without
turning either to the right or the left" (Deut 5,32).

But the God of Israel is not one of the "little deities" of the
surrounding world who rebelled against the others and conquered them. On
the contrary, this God has the right to ask for a total commitment
because his realm encompasses the whole of existence. Since this God is
the Source of all that exists, those who give him everything are not
mutilated. The diversity of life remains, but it is enabled to serve a
deeper unity.

And so this faith reveals, as if by ricochet, the unity of the human
being. Henceforth there exists in us the possibility of a yes that
commits our entire being. A human being is not a mere collection of
disparate elements; faith makes possible, starting from the heart, a
slow and patient unification of the personality, in order to love the
Lord with all one's heart, with all one's soul and with all one's
strength.

*Through what acts, even very humble ones, can we express our wish to
love the Lord with our whole being?

*Does my faith help me to find unity in my life especially when I feel
pulled in all directions by inner contradictions? How?

email: taize@cpe.ipl.fr




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