23 July 2021 – Friday of the 16th week in Ordinary Time – Exodus 20:1-17

    In our first reading today, we hear God give Moses the commandments he wishes his people to follow.  Let us think about how following God’s laws and commandments are foundational to our Christian faith and to our life of discipleship.  Having said that, we know that it is not always easy to follow these commandments and to 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 ancient Roman martyrology, we have listed 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 3rd century before Christianity became a recognized legal religion, legend hands down that these young men 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; it 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.

       Sometimes we think what each of the ten commandment states, but sometimes we may need to look at them through a new lens to see the entirety of what they encompass.  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.