JUBILEE OBEDIENCE

"Hear the statutes and decrees which I am teaching you to observe, that you may live, and may enter in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you." —Deuteronomy 4:1

The long-awaited year of the Great Jubilee has finally come. If we are to receive the awesome graces of Jubilee — justice, mercy, and freedom — we must obey the Lord:

"carefully" (Dt 4:6), that is, in detail, for Jesus has come to fulfill even the smallest part of a letter of the law (Mt 5:18).
zealously. It is our privilege to obey the Lord, Who for love of us obeyed the Father even to death on the cross (Phil 2:8). We must reject a minimalistic aberration of Christian life, for "the letter of the law kills, but the Spirit gives life" (2 Cor 3:6, our transl).
joyfully. We delight in obeying the law of the Lord (Ps 40:9). We should give obedience to the Lord cheerfully, for the Lord loves cheerful givers (2 Cor 9:7).

Jesus said: "You will live in My love if you keep My commandments, even as I have kept My Father's commandments, and live in His love" (Jn 15:10). Let us love and carefully, zealously, and joyfully obey our way into the Great Jubilee.

Prayer: Father, send the Holy Spirit to teach me to obey You — according to Your standards.

Promise: "Whoever breaks the least significant of these commands and teaches others to do so shall be called least in the kingdom of God." —Mt 5:19

Praise: Marcy disciples her own small children by praying with them, by reading stories of the saints to them, and by showing them God's love in their everyday activities.