Peculiar Meaning

Saturday of the First Week of Lent

Deuteronomy 26:16-19 / Psalm 119:1-2, 4-5, 7-8 / Matthew 5:43-48

Peculiar Meaning

Peculiar is a peculiar word. It is rarely used, so it sounds peculiar when we hear it. Its modern usage normally denotes something odd or unusual. Sometimes a family, a group or a culture has an expression that is peculiar or unique to it, i.e. others don’t use the word that way. Sometimes a person’s habits are said to be peculiar, i.e. most people don’t do it that way.

The word peculiar as used in today’s reading from Deuteronomy is very faithful to its Latin root, peculiaris, which means “as one’s own.” Hence the English translation renders this verse, “peculiarly his own” thus avoiding implications of oddity.

The Jewish people are uniquely God’s people. God’s election of the Jews does not void his unconditional and universal love for all nations and all creation, but is a sign singling out the Jews as God’s covenanted people, so as to draw others to God through them.

In verse 26:19 Moses says to this people, “You will be a people sacred to the Lord, your God…”  When people today say something is sacred to them, they usually mean that they hold it in high esteem. They would not stand for it to be mistreated, or spoken ill of. Because they are a people sacred to the Lord, God demonstrated by his mighty deeds in the Exodus event that he would not stand for the Jews to be mistreated. What’s more, when God took action as the redeemer who chose them, they responded by choosing God in return, and dedicated themselves to him. And in that dedication, that covenantal relationship, the Lord promises to raise them “high in praise and renown and glory above all other nations he has made…” Not for the glory of Israel, but for the glory of God, and to draw all people to the Lord. Truly the Jews are to this day peculiarly God’s own.

·        Our Catholic tradition has a long history of prayers of consecration in many devotional forms. Write your own prayer of consecration to God. 

·        Reflect for a moment on the words of today’s reading: “sacred to the Lord.” Apply that expression to yourself. Are you thinking, feeling, acting, and viewing your circumstances in life through the lens of being “sacred to the Lord?” Does that lens change your view of life?

·        Consider the tensions between religious traditions today: Ask God to give you an understanding of and a love for your neighbors of different faiths, and think about how you might be able to reach out to understand more deeply what your neighbor’s faith means to them. Share the importance of your faith in Christ with them respectfully.