PEOPLE OF THE LAW AND GOD - C: 3rd Sun in OrdTime

First Reading: Neh 8:2-6, 8-10 (23 January 2021)

This episode in Nehemiah 8 is dubbed by scholars as the beginning of formal Judaism, which transformed the belief in Yhwh as an official religion in the so-called Great Assembly (a.k.a. the Keneset Hagedolah) in the Yehud (Judah) sometime after the return of the Babylonian exiles in 539 BCE. As a religion, it implies in effect that the people of the Yehud established a systematic set of beliefs, tenets of faith, commandments for moral living, laws of membership, and cultic rites in worship. It also entails that they assigned a locale to be their religious centre (i.e., Jerusalem) and appointed leaders and intelligentsias to serve as its main stewards.

This organization of their religious community binds the people together as one people of both the law and God as opposed to non-Jews who are considered outsiders of this drafted border.

As a people of the law, the inhabitants of the Yehud would live according to the spirit of the law that was codified for the clarity, order, and perpetuity of their identified doctrines and precepts. This point is reiterated in the first reading when the priest Ezra along with the other Levites and scholars “read from the book, from the law of God, with interpretation. They gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading” (v. 8). Accordingly, the code of the law that was read and explained was considered by the Jewish assembly as the main norm for their day-to-day harmonious and peaceful living. That is why it was stated in the narrative that “the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law” (v. 3) as all respected its contents.

As a people of God, the dwellers of the Yehud subscribed to an everlasting covenant with Yhwh, i.e., their allegiance and loyalty lie only in him. This notion is corroborated in the first reading when “Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people ... all the people stood up. Then Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, ‘Amen, Amen,’ lifting up their hands. Then they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground” (vv. 5-6). The expression “Amen” in Hebrew is often used as a solemn formula equivalent to “Surely!” that means that “the hearer accepts the validity of a curse or declaration, and acceptable order or announcement” (cf. HALOT).

In other words, the people of the Yehud confessed as one community their fidelity to Yhwh and to whatever he commands them.

In the Philippine society, these two images also stand true in the history of the nation. Indeed, we are both a people of the law and of God. As a people of the law, we have our Philippine Constitution of 1987 that was crafted as a direct counter-response to the Marcos dictatorship that led to the plummet of the Philippine economy and integrity, as witnessed in the abuse of thousands of citizens especially during the Martial law, the wanton stealing of trillions from the coffers of national treasury, and the political machination to stay in more than two decades of power. As a people of God, we now celebrate the 500th year of the Christianization of the Philippines that reminds us of our heritage as God’s people who live under his guidance. This faith in God is also enshrined in the preamble of the Constitution:

“We, the sovereign Filipino people, imploring the aid of Almighty God, in order to build a just and humane society....”

Being a Filipino people of the law and God, may we select the next leaders of our society who are known to protect our common patrimony as rooted in human rights and Christian values. May we eschew candidates who are associated with regimes that trampled and abused our sacrosanct Filipino dignity. Instead, may we elect persons who will keep our identity as a people of the law and of God, i.e., those who will protect human rights, the common good, our sovereign territories, and our values, which are evinced in their track record of governance and moral ascendency to lead. Let them lead our land. And let the law and God prevail once more.

- Rex Fortes, CM