You Read A Sacred Text and You Put It Back on the Shelf and It's Still Making A Demand of You

I loved what Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks of Great Britain said a few years ago in this same vein:

You read Jane Austen [and] you put it back on the shelf and it makes no further demand of you until you feel like reading it again. But you read a sacred text and you put it back on the shelf [and] it’s still making a demand of you. It is saying this is a truth to be lived. . . . That is the difference between religion and culture. . . .. . . Unless you hear a command [or] an obligation that comes from beyond you [and I would add “from above you”], you will not be able to generate sustainable, [actionable faith].5

J. Reuben Clark Law Society, Conference Washington, D.C., February 15, 2013, Jeffrey R. Holland