7/24/2015 – Friday of the 16th week in Ordinary Time – Exodus 20:1-17

     In our first reading today, as we hear God give Moses the commandments he wishes his people to follow, we might think about how following God’s laws and commandments are foundational to our Christian faith and to our lives of discipleship.  Having said that, we know that it is not always easy following those commandments and apply God’s law to the reality of our lives.  Reading those commandments, they might seem clear-cut and straight-forward, but when seen in the light of our complicated human lives, it is not so easy or straight-forward, is it?

      This month, in our calendar of saints, we have the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus.  I thought about them when I thought about the commandment of honoring God and his name and not taking his name in vain.  Supposedly there were seven young men named Maximian, Malchus, Marcian, John, Denis, Serapion, and Constantine.  During the persecutions conducted by the Emperor Decius in the middle of the 3^rd century before Christianity became a recognized legal religion, they hid in a cave to save their lives because they refused to make pagan sacrifices.  The cave was sealed, and legend has it that they fell into a miraculous sleep and later woke up approximately 300 years later where they were seen by the townsfolk of the city.  This incident was revered by both the Christian and Muslim traditions because it was interpreted as validating the resurrection of the dead that is a part of our belief. Martyrdom was respected and honored in the early Church and was the true sign of sainthood for the sacrifices and testimony those individuals made for the faith.  Whether the story is true or not is not the point.  The point is: How are we honoring God and his holy name in our lives and what sacrifices and commitment are we making to follow our faith as disciples of Christ.

        A year ago, our Adult Faith Formation program here at St James read a book by Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister about the Ten Commandments.  What I liked most about that book was how it challenged us in the way we looked at those commandments, seeing them in different and new ways.  May we honor God in the way we try to follow the Ten Commandments in our lives.  May we honor him and praise him in our words and in our actions.