What great nation is there that has gods so close to it as the Lord, our God, is to us whenever we call upon him? The Book of Deuteronomy from which today’s first reading is taken contains, among other things, a collection of exhortations that Moses gave to the people as they journeyed from Egypt to the promised land. In the passage we have read, we see Moses exhorting the community to loyalty, love and obedience to the Lord by appealing to their past glory. He calls to their mind their special election as a people of God as he points out to them the special place that they were occupying in the created universe. It was to them, and not to any other people, that God chose to reveal the self in a special way. It was for them alone that the Lord, as it were, left his heavenly abode in order to fight and win battles. Not only were they required to remember these things, they were obligated to teach them to their children as a way of committing to memory the faithfulness of the Lord God.
Whereas the immediate recipients of the above words of exhortation were the children of Israel, in the incarnation of the Word of God, these words remain true to us as well. For in Jesus Christ, we too have been privileged to encounter God in a special way. In Jesus Christ, God has lowered the self and taken a creaturely nature in order to be with us. In Jesus Christ, God has seen it fit to walk with, and commune with us unlike in any other time. Yes, God journeyed with the people of Israel in their sojourn in the desert. But God was present to them in a pillar of cloud. To us, God continues to be present to us in a very personal way. And with such an election comes responsibility. Moses reminded the people of Israel that they had to keep at heart the statutes and commands of God. The same is required of us, for the more privileged one is, the more responsibility one is given.