Observe It

Saturday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time

Then shall you know that I, the LORD, am your God, dwelling on Zion, my holy mountain; Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall pass through her no more. And then, on that day, the mountains shall drip new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk; And the channels of Judah shall flow with water: A fountain shall issue from the house of the LORD, to water the Valley of Shittim.  Joel 4:17-18

While Jesus was speaking, a woman from the crowd called out and said to him, "Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed." He replied, "Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it."  Luke 11:27-28

Piety

Study

Knowledge is revealed to the Lord’s followers if they pay attention. 

We hear about that in the reading from the Hebrew Bible.  The prophet Joel explains that the Judahites will learn that the Lord is present in their economic prosperity and political autonomy, even though they did not associate God’s presence with their crop failure.

The blessings of prosperity will continue to shower down upon these people.  Images of agricultural abundance illustrate the harmony and order that Joel expects the Lord to establish in Judah as a contrast to the deprivation and drought of chapter one.  Such blessings come to the people only because the Lord upholds his covenant with them.  (Then shall you know that I, the LORD, am your God, dwelling on Zion, my holy mountain; Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall pass through her no more.)

The blessing cup of obedience and fidelity extends into the Good News as Jesus welcomes all into his family if they but adhere to two conditions:  First, hear the Word of God.  Second, observe it.

This passage falls right after Jesus has driven out a demon which prevented a mute person from speaking.  He then delivered a powerful lesson explaining how he performs his great works: “But if it is by the finger of God that [I] drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” (Luke 11:20).  That same finger of God motif helped to write the commandments on the tablet for Moses.  The same finger of God image was attributed as the source of the plaque in Egypt.  This image is one which the Pharisees would fully understand. 

Although the Pharisees might challenge the authority of Jesus, a woman yells out a blessing to Jesus from the crowd.  To her – and the Pharisees – Jesus then delivers the message of the Gospel that we must hear and observe the commandments.

Action

Observe it is a much more active phrase than the translators might think.  People who hear – and follow – the word of God are, as blessed as is Jesus.  Observation does not just mean watching.  In this context, it means hearing and acting upon what we hear.

We hear warnings in life every day.  Some are deadly – like the messages on cigarette packages.  Yet the pleasure that smokers get from their habit is sometimes enough to create cognitive dissonance between what you know and what you would ignore.