Day 22: Reviving God’s Teachings
BY SEAN GARGAMELLI-MCCREIGHT | March 6th, 2024
Today’s readings
Blessed are the peacemakers, the gentle-hearted, the merciful, and honorable. Blessed are those who THIRST for righteousness, act boldly for justice, and are treated like outsiders for living according to the laws of an ever-loving God.
In today’s gospel reading, after preaching what has come to be known as “The Beatitudes” to the crowds who have gathered for a great sermon on the mount, Jesus proclaims the need for believers to renew their commitments to the teachings and laws of God passed down to them through generations of truth-seekers. This fresh take on the Ten Commandments, brought forth and nurtured for us by our great Brother Moses, Sister Zipporah, and their followers, reminds us of the living nature of scripture. Moses in Deuteronomy even goes so far as to suggest that by modeling God’s love and laws for the children of generations to come, we demonstrate great intelligence and wisdom! Sounds good, right?
The Word of God and the Way of Jesus are meant to be dynamic, reverberating with life, and brimming with the full force of love in our world. If the ten commandments and the beatitudes remain text on a page without taking hold of our hearts, we are missing out on the chance to be true companions of Christ, partners in building a kin-dom of kindness, and fellow sojourners making safe the path toward greater communion with our neighbors and our Earth.
On days when my work turns toward using my hands in the soil on this humble catholic worker farm, I am personally reminded of God’s living way, the potential for greater justice being done in our world, the bellies that can be filled with good food, and the meaningful and fair labor making it possible to be in better relationship with one another and the land.
Even when faced with great injustice, obstacles, and disillusionment, we can strive to model today the truth of God’s love for the children of this generation and the children of generations to come. How are the teachings of the Ten Commandments and The Beatitudes “alive” for you today? How might you be called to make them fresh and commit to them anew? What would you like to do today to let the children of generations yet to come know you love them?
Sean Gargamelli-McCreight is a co-founder of Benincasa Community, a house of hospitality and sustainable farm first established in New York City in 2015 before relocating to 6.5 acres in Guilford, CT. Living into the spirit of the Catholic Worker movement and vowed religious life while desiring a more inclusive, diversity affirming way to express our faith, Benincasa has grown to include a wide array of engaged individuals from around the world who are committed to our most pressings peace movements for racial, environmental, gender, and economic justice. Dedicated to the works of mercy and justice in an era thirsting for humanity’s collective desire for unity and interdependence within all of creation, members of Benincasa are grounded by faith, an emerging understanding of the new cosmology, the development of new economic models in world, and the need for deepening relationships with the land and one another. In addition to spending hours upon hours living his dream in the dirt, Sean’s primary vocation in life is as a partner to Karen and parent to the incomparably entertaining Erin and Thomas.
Thank you for that reflection on the 10 commandments and the Beatitudes. My answer to your prompt comes from a wonderful book that we are reading in my parish for our Lenten Book Club, The Law of Love:Modern Language for Ancient Wisdom by Richard Leonard SJ. Chapters 2 and 3 are all about bringing the Commandments and Beatitudes to life in this day and age. Very uplifting and relevant.