Feast of St. Dominic (Year B)

Heresies arise all the time. When an opinion goes against the official teachings of the Church or threatens the unity of the Church, this opinion is heretic. At a time when seminarian training was unheard of, the Church did not have qualified enough priests to take care of the pastoral needs of the laity. Heresies thrived and to fight against them, preaching and Holy Inquisition had been employed. It was in this milieu that St. Dominic (1170-1217) founded the Order of the Preachers. Religious orders of the earlier generations renounced material comforts, led a beggar's life or withdrew into the wilderness. The Dominicans were different. They were an intellectual army to fight against heresies. They were learned men, among them was the famous Angelicus Doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas. Later, they were asked to supply judges to preside over the Holy Inquisitions. However, their missionary experience in China was a little bit tragic. They did not work with the Jesuits and went against the Chinese culture of ancestral worship. When the Qing Emperor was offended and banned Catholicism in China in 1717, all previous missionary efforts were rendered nought. Catholicism in China has to restart from scratch.

Today, we read of the famous line of Shema Israel (Deuteronomy 6:4-5). All Israelites were supposed to recite it everyday.
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD;
and you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might (Deuteronomy 6:4-5).

שְׁמַע, יִשְׂרָאֵל: יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ, יְהוָה אֶחָד
וְאָהַבְתָּ, אֵת יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ, בְּכָל-לְבָבְךָ וּבְכָל-נַפְשְׁךָ, וּבְכָל-מְאֹדֶךָ

In New Testament time, an extra element was added to adapt to the Greek milieu. When a teacher of the law challenged Jesus to identify the greatest commandment, Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 6.
Jesus answered, "The first is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one;
and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' (Mark 12:29-30)
At the end of the debate, Jesus said that the teacher of the law was not far from the Kingdom of God. Therefore, Judaism is in no way inferior to Christianity. It is a matter of putting what we believe into practice. Our actions cannot be such as God doesn't exist. True, we do not earn our salvation with our work, our actions. God cannot be bribed with our almsgiving. Somehow, we must find some ways to love our God. Both the poor widow who gave two brass coins in the Temple and the woman who anointed Jesus with ointment which was worth more than 300 silver pieces were able to love God in their own ways and earned Jesus' praises. Somehow, we have to find our own ways.

Christianity stresses a lot on love but not enough on fear. There are only 3 verses of "fear of the Lord" in the New Testament (Acts 9:31, 2 Corinthians 5:11 and Revelation 15:4). Christians have little fear of their God.
On the other hand, there are more than 100 verses of "fear the Lord" in the Old Testament. From the point of view of ethical development, the first stage of morality is based on fear of external punishment. Next comes the stage of getting rewards. Then a child begins to internalize morality until it wants to do good, not out of fear of punishment but out of the desire to do the right thing. In this sense, the ethics of the New Testament is more advanced than that of the Old Testament. We do good because of our love of God, not because of our fear of God.
However, I doubt very much whether a man can jump start his growth in morality, skipping some stages without going through them all. Can our children learn to love their parents without going through an initial stage of dependence and fear? Can I blame the abolition of corporal punishment on students for the present drug abuse problem among them?
Listen to Deuteronomy again.
You shall fear the LORD your God; you shall serve him, and swear by his name (Deuteronomy 6:13).
Within the space of 8 verses, Deuteronomy 6 spells out the two basic pillars of morality: love and fear. We really have to admire the wisdom of God, the wisdom of the Deuteronomists. In the Hebrew wisdom literature, we find many verses, saying "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." We need to teach of children both fear and love so that they may grow ethically in a balanced manner.

Dear Lord, I pray for the clergy. Modern societies place heavy demands them intellectually as well as emotionally. May their love of You help them meet these demands so that they may become good shepherds of Your flock. Amen.