Only take heed to yourself, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes saw, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; but make them known to your children and your children’s children; the day that you stood before [the LORD] your God in Horeb, when [the LORD] said to me, “Assemble me the people, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.”
Deuteronomy 4:9-10

In his discourse to the children of Israel, Moses' warned them to "take heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently".  If we are not careful, we will forget what we saw and that these depart from our heart. The Jerusalem Bible uses the word 'slip' rather than 'depart'. We do not just all of a sudden leave God. It begins with a single slip up. Then another, then another until we suddenly realize, we have lost him. When this happens, we will leave our lives with God and stray from his path.

Moses gave a solution to this, "make them known to your children and your children's children".  By speaking of our faith, we are constantly reminded of God's goodness. We either use it or lose it. That is human nature.

I take the bus to commute to work. Often times, I am amazed to see how fast teenagers can text on their cellphones. Since I seldom send text, I would not be surprised if they can type 10 times faster than me. The reason for this is these teenagers constantly text on their cellphones. They practice it at least once a day or maybe more. While I text maybe once a month if at all!

The point is if we do not speak about what God has done, we will forget it. But if we constantly speak of his greatness and his works, it will be part of our lives. God will be real to us.

God also gave parents the responsibility of passing their faith to their children. When we teach our children about our faith, we are expected to also speak of what God has done for us.

Parents who teach their children their faith need to be commended. But our faith is more than a matter of knowing the teachings of the Church. It not a matter of laws and rituals. Our faith is about a personal relationship with God. If we take our children to mass every Sunday and just tell them this is an obligation, they grow up thinking that our religion is a worthless set of laws to be obeyed. This also gives a wrong idea of God. But if we speak of God's goodness and greatness, we make our faith alive to them.

I went to Catholic school from elementary to high school. I got good grades in religion and theology. But I never had a sense of God's power. This changed after I realized his greatness and power.

In verse 10, The Lord told Moses to "assemble me the people". It is by coming to the Lord that God will "make them hear my words". We cannot hear God's word on our own. We hear God's word because he makes us hear his words. We cannot understand God's word without the grace of God. No one can interpret God's word without guidance from the Holy Spirit. Since as Catholics, we believe the Holy Spirit also guides the Church, these interpretations should be according to the teachings of the Catholic Church.

The purpose of hearing the word of God is not for intellectual gain. True, theology and philosophy have their place in our relationship with God. But everything boils down to what God told Moses, "that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on earth".

This is the purpose for listening to God's word - to learn to fear God. This fear is not a sense of being afraid. Instead, this is a sense of being in awe of the greatness of God. We get to know God's greatness and power by listening to his word. Notice the word is 'listen' and not read or study. We listen to God. We need to sit down in silence and allow him to speak to us. Then and only then can God make us hear his words. Then and only then can we learn of his greatness and awe.

Verse 10 ends with another command "teach these to their children". Here again, we see this instruction to pass this on to our children.

We need to listen to God's word. We need to speak of his greatness and goodness.

Lord, open my heart. Keep me steadfast and diligent in keeping your word. Help me to develop a loving relationship with you so I may be able to speak of the great things you have done for me.