Fifteenth Week: Sunday (Year C)

Click for readings: Dt 30:10-14 / Ps 69:14, 17, 30-31, 33-34, 36, 37 / Col 1:15-20 / Lk 10:25-37

In 1998, the film Rounders was in the theaters. It is about two buddies who try to get out of troubles by winning money from playing poker. I have seen that film many times. By the mid 2000s, poker (specifically Texas Hold’em) all of a sudden became a big deal. Poker websites, the World Series of Poker on ESPN, Poker After Dark on network television, and the World Poker Tour were all on my radar. My friends and I would play in home games and occasionally find ourselves down at Foxwoods in the poker room. To play right you have to fold 80% of your hands, which means you have to sit and ‘grind out’ a session of several hours waiting for the right cards to come or a person to make a mistake. While sitting at the tables, I’ve heard this statement made many times in disgust, “I knew you had the Queen (or insert any other card)!” This statement is always made after a person calls and loses the hand because the other player had the card that made a hand to beat the player who ‘knew’ the Queen was in his opponent’s hand. Well, there is a flaw in logic in that statement. If that person knew they were beat, it would be foolish to call and throw their money away. So, they really didn’t know, they just had an overwhelming suspicion. When it comes to faith in God and following his commandments, we have a greater assurance than merely a sneaking suspicion, we have the Natural Law written on our hearts, which is a sure bet.

The Eternal Law that governs all created things is placed in our hearts by God. However, because of Original Sin we have a clouded intellect. Therefore, God made explicit what is implicit and gave us the Divine Law of the Ten Commandments. Today, Moses is telling the People of Israel to heed the voice of the Lord. This is not a mysterious command that is ‘out there’ in the sky, or across the sea, but it is in already in our mouths and in our hearts. Jesus is at the center of all creation as, “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church.” Being so, we must listen to the voice of Jesus, who is the 2nd person of the Holy Trinity. Jesus affirms for us today the recipe for gaining eternal life, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”

Yes, we must heed the voice of our Lord God, Jesus. If we fail to do so, we will be telling St. Peter at the gates of Heaven in disgust, “I knew that Jesus was God. I knew that God was real.” To which St. Peter will ask, “Well, if you knew Jesus was God, then why did you spend so much time doubting and wasting your time with vice?” Today, let us heed the voice of the Lord, love God and love our neighbor. Let us not foolishly throw our money away on secular and selfish things, but double down on a sure bet.