Week 18 Saturday (Year 1)

Readings: Deuteronomy 6.4-13; Psalm 17; Matthew 17.14-20

How do we get into ourselves the things we want never to forget? Memories come to mind, of walking up and down at home, drilling things into the memory by endless repetition, preparing for exams. The people are to do this with the call to love God with all their heart, all their soul and all their strength. But will all their external efforts to remember be effective? They are to repeat these words, say them over and over, walking, sitting, standing, lying down, write them on your hand, on your forehead, on the door, on the gate - it seems to be a projection of God's anxiety that they will inevitably forget him. Which of course they have done more than once already since leaving Egypt, so his anxiety is well-founded.

'Write them on your heart' sounds more promising - the wood of the door will rot, the ink on paper will fade, the skin of hand or forehead will be washed - only if something takes up residence in our heart has it any real hope of remaining fresh for us.

So what we need are not words and instructions about how to hold onto these words. What we need is the love itself to which the words refer. Jeremiah speaks about this when he talks of a new covenant written directly onto human hearts (Jeremiah 31.31). Paul talks about it when it has been brought to completion in the new covenant established on the blood of Christ. Now God's love is poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Romans 5.5).

Is it possible to forget God's love once it has been experienced in that way? It seems not. It does not mean that a person will always think of it. It does mean that a person cannot forget it. And even the tiniest quantity of faith is enough to re-activate it, the tiniest quantity of faith makes all things possible.

Why should this be so? It cannot be any 'external' effort to remember or to believe, nor is it any strength of willpower or clarity of intellect. It is because the object of faith is God and even the flimsiest purchase on God is contact with the infinite, eternal and all-powerful Lord.

The point is not to remember this idea or these words. The point is to believe in the truth they carry, for that truth is Truth and so the tiniest morsel of faith gives us access to God himself. It is faith that holds us, God who re-members us, the love of Christ which is the Holy Spirit who dwells in our hearts, nudging them ceaselessly in the direction of their deepest joy.

Many things come to occupy and distract us. In the midst of it all, hold on to that seed of faith no matter how tiny, for it admits us to the kingdom and to the love that rules there.