Keep the law, the instruction, the tradition. All the readings today ramify a single word in English, with Moses' discourse being the most explicit. In the meandering storyline of Deuteronomy, by the time Moses gets to the section we now call ch. 11, he has reviewed with his hearers what their parents experienced at Mount Horeb (also called Sinai): God's word spoken, mostly deferred to the ears of Moses, soon forgotten, then disobeyed.

The law tablets were broken in anger and in symbolic reaction to the peoples' refusal to keep them. So, says Moses to his people and to us: Keep it better: Learn it, say it, do it. Write it, wear it, teach it. Recall it, rethink it, debate it. Let it wrap around your arm, dangle before your eyes, catch your attention as you enter and leave your house. Love it, treasure it, let it guide your steps. Oh, and don't add or subtract from it while you build your life within it and around it! Biblical law and all that flows from it enjoys a paradoxical existence: Primordial and complete, given in a moment at the mountain, all of it, for once and for all. Yet, of course, it grew and changed in time, responsive to life as lived, and the biblical narrative makes that plain to anyone reading carefully. It is a profound mystery, one that we would do well to ponder. How to hear, recognize and love these words of God so deeply that keeping them is our greatest joy. Barbara Green, O.P.