Contemplating the icon of Life (Deuteronomy 28,1-14; Luke 5,1-11 / Tuesday after Fifth Sunday after Easter, BCP)

‘…and all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God. Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground…’
 
This passage describes what happens to us when we contemplate God’s commandments. These precepts are like the holy icons in a church, pointing to God. We contemplate them – and become like Him. The above list of blessings, is like painting an icon, layer by layer. We are being painted by these commands. We are becoming God’s icon reflecting abundant life; by imitating his inner Life. As a result, Deuteronomy teaches us, a godly order in our businesses emerge.
 
In Luke, Jesus invites the people for the same type of ‘life-bearing’ contemplation. We are to behold God’s gifts/word as the icon of his abundant Life. ‘And he sat down, and taught the people out of the ship’…‘Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught…And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes.’
 
This miracle of catching ‘abundant life’ is a prophetic recapitulation of God’s giving abundant life, which we saw in Deuteronomy. The ‘depth’ of the Commandments, when reached and understood, is life giving.
 
In view of yesterday’s terrorist attack on children (Manchester, 23.05.2017), we can add something more. ‘Depth’ is the synonym of God’s beauty. Its contemplation is the only way of removing the ‘negative bombs’, which occur in the moral vacuum of uncontemplated (= ‘unplanted’) Divine life.

For contemplation: The Icon of the Holy Trinity.