Searching For The Common Faith
Thoughts on the First Readings – Joe Frankenfield
Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ
Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14b-16a

This week’s scripture is part of a speech Moses’ made to the Hebrew people. In it he gave them The Law God had dictated to him along with two additional points. He told the Hebrews that God promised to live and travel with them, protecting them and guiding them to a new homeland. Moses also explained that The Law God had given them was a blessing because it enabled them to live as a community in harmony with both one another and their divine benefactor.

This message is the kernel of faiths around the world: we’re not alone in the universe and the Creator guarantees our future.

Though I can’t claim universal expertise, it seems to me that religion, in general, focuses on these two basic tenets however they understand and express them. All of us, whether we think a lot about it or not, realize on some level that we exist in a world and universe where we have very little control over our destiny. We also realize that our lives will end before we experience all the goodness and beauty we imagine.

It’s understandable that we long for and believe in an all-powerful Creator who loves us and guarantees our happiness. This is, and will always remain, an act of faith. It’s a faith that, in one form or another, whether explicit or not, unites humanity.

It’s both wise and comforting to recall this commonality of faith. It reminds us that we’re a single family inhabiting the globe. Governments as far back as we possess written histories have understood that to wage successful war a population has to believe that their enemy is different and less human than they. There’s a lesson there for us who seek not war but peace.