Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
The law of the Lord is perfect
The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The decree of the Lord is trustworthy, giving wisdom to the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The command of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eye. The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The statutes of the Lord are true, all of them just; More desirable than gold, than a hoard of purest gold, Sweeter also than honey or drippings from the comb. Psa 18,8-11
The enthusiasm of my students for the philosophy which I was teaching to them by the beginning of the three years period was raising lesson by lesson. The authors were following one to another, going from the meditations over the nature and its continuous changing to that of the man and his most elevated values. I remember the emotions originated by the figure of Socrates and by his death, the fascination of the world of the ideas of Plato, the actuality envisaged in the decay of the Hellenistic philosophy. Everything was going ahead positively up to the beginning of the Christian thought: the problems were starting thereby. Some students were becoming hard, several were openly stating their scepticism and some other appeared disoriented by those new categories of thought, which in a way there were twisting the clearness of the Hellenistic thought. It was really hard to speak about God in a way to respect the belief of everyone and, by the same time, to teach also the faith of the Christian authors, necessary for the first understanding of the western thought. I have been successful when, in front of the refusal of some student to accept the proofs of the God existence listed by the various authors, I decided to prove to them that “ the law of the Lord is perfect and it refresh the soul. The rules of the Lord are right, they make the heart happy; the command of the Lord is clear. It lights the eyes”. The better demonstration of the existence of the God of the Bible rests specifically in the perfect correspondence between his commands and the desires of the man. When I was silent, they remained pondering and perhaps the existence of God has not to be demonstrated by sophisticated thoughts but it has to be perceived into ourselves as a voice which speaks.