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The covenant of the Lord
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"Against the Heresies" by St. Irenaeus
In the book of Deuteronomy Moses says to the people: "The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. It was not with our fathers that the Lord made this covenant, but with us, with us who are here, all living today" (Deuteronomy 5:2-3). Why did God not make this covenant with their fathers? Because "laws are not framed for people who are good" (1 Timothy 1:9). Their fathers were righteous: they had the power of the Decalogue implanted in their hearts and in their souls. That is, they loved the God who made them and did nothing unjust against their neighbour. For this reason they did not need to be admonished by written rebukes: they had the righteousness of the law in their hearts.
When this righteousness and love for God had passed into oblivion and had been extinguished in Egypt, God had necessarily to reveal himself through his own voice, out of his great love for men. He led the people out of Egypt in power, so that man might once again become God’s disciple and follower. He made them afraid as they listened, to warn them not to hold their Creator in contempt. "He fed them with manna, that they might receive spiritual food. In the book of Deuteronomy Moses says: he fed you with manna which neither you nor your fathers had known, to make you understand that man does not live on bread alone but that man lives on everything that comes from the mouth of the Lord" (Deuteronomy 8:3).
He commanded them to love himself and trained them to practise righteousness towards their neighbour, so that man might not be unrighteous or unworthy of God. Through the Decalogue he prepared man for friendship with himself and for harmony with his neighbour. This was to man’s advantage, though God needed nothing from man.
This raised man to glory, for it gave him what he did not have, friendship with God. But it brought no advantage to God, for God did not need man’s love. Man did not possess the glory of God, nor could he attain it by any other means than through obedience to God. This is why Moses said to the people: "Choose life, then, so that you and your descendants may live, in the love of the Lord your God, obeying his voice, clinging to him; for in this your life consists, and on this depends your long stay in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob he would give" (Deuteronomy 30:20).
This was the life that the Lord was preparing man to receive when he spoke in person and gave the words of the Decalogue for all alike to hear. These words remain with us as well; they were extended and amplified through his coming in the flesh, but not annulled.
God gave to the people separately through Moses the commandments that enslave: these were precepts suited to their instruction or their condemnation. As Moses said: "the Lord ordered me then to teach you the laws and customs that you were to observe" (Deuteronomy 4:14). The precepts that were given them to enslave and to serve as a warning have been cancelled by the new covenant of freedom. The precepts that belong to man’s nature and to freedom and to all alike have been enlarged and broadened. Through the adoption of sons God has enabled man so generously and bountifully to know him as Father, to love him with his whole heart, and to follow his Word unfailingly.
Thursday of the Second Week of Lent
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Prayer
Invitatory
O Lord, open my lips, ✠ and my mouth will declare your praise.
Psalm 100
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord!” (Psalm 122:1)
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness;
come into his presence with singing.
Know that the Lord is God.
It is he that made us, and we are his;[a]
we are his people and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise.
Give thanks to him, bless his name.
For the Lord is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end. Amen.
Office of Readings
Be pleased, O God, to deliver me. O Lord, make haste to help me! (Psalm 70:1)
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be world without end. Amen.
Second Reading
"The Meaning of the Fear of the Lord" by St. Hilary of Poitiers
"Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways" (Ps. 128:1). Notice that when Scripture speaks of the fear of the Lord it does not leave the phrase in isolation, as if it were a complete summary of faith. No, many things are added to it or are presupposed by it. From there, we may learn its meaning and excellence. In the book of Proverbs Solomon tells us: "if your plea is for clear perception, if you cry out for discernment, if you look for it as if it were silver, and search for it as for buried treasure, you will then understand what the fear of the Lord is, and discover the knowledge of God" (Proverbs 2:3-5). We see here the difficult journey we must undertake before we can arrive at the fear of the Lord.
We must begin by crying out for wisdom. We must hand over to our intellect the duty of making every decision. We must look for wisdom and search for it. Then we must understand the fear of the Lord.
“Fear” is not to be taken in the sense that common usage gives it. Fear in this ordinary sense is the trepidation our weak humanity feels when it is afraid of suffering something it does not want to happen. We are afraid, or made afraid, because of a guilty conscience, the rights of someone more powerful, an attack from one who is stronger, sickness, encountering a wild beast, suffering evil in any form. This kind of fear is not taught: it happens because we are weak. We do not have to learn what we should fear: objects of fear bring their terror with them.
But of the fear of the Lord this is what is written: "Come, my sons, listen to me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord" (Ps. 34:11). The fear of the Lord has then to be learned because it can be taught. It does not lie in terror, but in something that can be taught. It does not arise from the fearfulness of our nature; it has to be acquired by obedience to the commandments, by holiness of life and by knowledge of the truth.
For us, the fear of God consists wholly in love, and perfect love of God brings our fear of him to its perfection. Our love for God is entrusted with its responsibility: to observe his counsels, to obey his laws, and to trust his promises. Let us hear what Scripture says: "And now, Israel, what does Yahweh your God ask of you? Only this: to fear Yahweh your God, to follow all his ways, to love him, to serve Yahweh your God with all your heart and all your soul, to keep the commandments and laws of the Lord that for your good I lay down for you today" (Deuteronomy 10:12-13).
The ways of the Lord are many, though he is himself the way. When he speaks of himself he calls himself the way and shows us the reason why he called himself the way: "No one can come to the Father except through me" (John 14:6).
We must ask for these many ways, we must travel along these many ways, to find the good one. That is, we shall find the one way of eternal life through the guidance of many teachers. These ways are found in the law, in the prophets, in the gospels, in the writings of the apostles, and in the different good works by which we fulfil the commandments. Blessed are those who walk these ways in the fear of the Lord.