20170801
MOVING FORWARD WITH THE PRESENCE OF GOD
Readings
at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: White.
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First reading
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Exodus 33:7-11,34:5-9,28 ©
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Moses used to take the Tent and pitch it outside the camp, at some
distance from the camp. He called it the Tent of Meeting. Anyone who had to
consult the Lord would go out to the Tent of Meeting, outside the camp.
Whenever Moses went out to the Tent, all the people would rise. Every man would
stand at the door of his tent and watch Moses until he reached the Tent; the
pillar of cloud would come down and station itself at the entrance to the Tent,
and the Lord would speak with Moses. When they saw the pillar of cloud
stationed at the entrance to the Tent, all the people would rise and bow low,
each at the door of his tent. The Lord would speak with Moses face to face, as
a man speaks with his friend. Then Moses would turn back to the camp, but the
young man who was his servant, Joshua son of Nun, would not leave the Tent.
And the Lord
descended in the form of a cloud, and Moses stood with him there.
He called on
the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, a
God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in kindness and
faithfulness; for thousands he maintains his kindness, forgives faults,
transgression, sin; yet he lets nothing go unchecked, punishing the father’s
fault in the sons and in the grandsons to the third and fourth generation.’ And
Moses bowed down to the ground at once and worshipped. ‘If I have indeed won
your favour, Lord,’ he said ‘let my Lord come with us, I beg. True, they are a
headstrong people, but forgive us our faults and our sins, and adopt us as your
heritage.’
Moses stayed
there with the Lord for forty days and forty nights, eating and drinking
nothing. He inscribed on the tablets the words of the Covenant – the Ten
Words.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 102(103):6-13 ©
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The Lord is compassion and love.
The Lord does deeds of justice,
gives judgement for all who are oppressed.
He made known his ways to Moses
and his deeds to Israel’s sons.
The Lord is compassion and love.
The Lord is compassion and love,
slow to anger and rich in mercy.
His wrath will come to an end;
he will not be angry for ever.
The Lord is compassion and love.
He does not treat us according to our sins
nor repay us according to our faults.
For as the heavens are high above the earth
so strong is his love for those who fear him.
The Lord is compassion and love.
As far as the east is from the west
so far does he remove our sins.
As a father has compassion on his sons,
the Lord has pity on those who fear him.
The Lord is compassion and love.
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Gospel Acclamation
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1P1:25
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Alleluia, alleluia!
The word of the Lord remains for ever:
What is this word?
It is the Good News that has been brought to you.
Alleluia!
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Or
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Alleluia, alleluia!
The seed is the word of God, Christ the sower;
whoever finds this seed will remain for ever.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Matthew 13:36-43 ©
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Leaving the crowds, Jesus went to the house; and his disciples
came to him and said, ‘Explain the parable about the darnel in the field to
us.’ He said in reply, ‘The sower of the good seed is the Son of Man. The field
is the world; the good seed is the subjects of the kingdom; the darnel, the
subjects of the evil one; the enemy who sowed them, the devil; the harvest is
the end of the world; the reapers are the angels. Well then, just as the darnel
is gathered up and burnt in the fire, so it will be at the end of time. The Son
of Man will send his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom all things
that provoke offences and all who do evil, and throw them into the blazing
furnace, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth. Then the virtuous will
shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Listen, anyone who has
ears!’
MOVING FORWARD WITH THE PRESENCE OF GOD
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ Ex 33:7-11; 34:5-9. 28; Ps 102:6-13; Mt 13:36-43 ]
We have read
how the people sinned against the Lord by breaking the foundational commandment
which is not to worship others gods. Furthermore, the Lord commanded, “You shall not make for
yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above,
or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you
shall not bow down to them or serve them.” (Ex 20:3f)
As a consequence, God decided to stop leading the people to the Promised
Land. He told Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, him will I blot out
of my book. But now go, lead the people to the place of which I have
spoken to you; behold, my angel shall go before you.” (Ex 32:33f)
Again, the Lord reiterated, “Depart, go up hence, you and the people whom you
have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your descendants I will give it.’ And I
will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites
…. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up
among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked
people.” (Ex 33:1-3)
Without the
Lord journeying with them, it would have been difficult for them to enter the
Promised Land in spite of the Lord‘s promise to send His angel to help
them.
Moses was insistent that God must be with them if he were to continue leading
the people. “If thy presence will not go with me, do not carry us up from
here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in thy sight, I and thy
people? Is it not in thy going with us, so that we are distinct, I and thy
people, from all other people that are upon the face of the earth?” (Ex 33:15f)
Moses undertook the task of leading the people out of Egypt to the Promised
Land only because the Lord assured him earlier that He would be with him.
So if the Lord were to withdraw His presence, Moses would be totally
defeated.
It is true for
us all. The presence and support of those who appoint us for a task is
very important if we are to carry out the work well. That is why it is
important that superiors give their moral support to their subordinates, and
speak on their behalf or defend them in their actions. This is not to say
that we try to protect them from the consequences of their mistakes but we need
to be supportive of them in good and bad times. When they make mistakes,
the superior must be ready to offer them encouragement and
compassion. If we have the moral presence of our superiors and our
loved ones, we can always overcome the trials of life. We can
appreciate why Moses appealed to the Lord to reconsider His decision not to
journey with them personally to the Promised Land.
The Lord
relented.
He said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” (Ex 33:14)
And so Moses asked the Lord, “I pray thee, show me thy glory.” (Ex 33:18)
And the Lord replied, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will
proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord’; and I will be gracious to whom I will
be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.” However,
there was a condition, “But, you cannot see my face; for man shall not see me
and live. Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand upon the rock;
and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will
cover you with my hand until I have passed by; then I will take away my hand,
and you shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen.” (Ex 33:18-23)
Indeed, no one can see the fullness of the glory and the majesty of God and
live. We are morally imperfect and the splendor of God would be too much
for us to encounter.
So where can
we locate His presence with us in our lives? Precisely, in the effects of
His work. This is what it means when God told Moses that he could only see
His back. In other words, we can see God only where He passed by, like
the shadow of a person that passes us. God is known by what
He does and how He acts. We cannot understand fully who God is unless He
reveals Himself. So in Jesus, we see who God is, in the humanity of
Jesus, not in His glory. This is what the Lord told Philip. “He who
has seen me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you
not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I
say to you I do not speak on my own authority; but the Father who dwells in me
does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in
me; or else believe me for the sake of the works themselves.” (Jn 14:9-11)
In Jesus, we see the fullness of the Father, but in a veiled form under the
lowliness of the humanity of Christ.
He revealed
his identity not so much by what He said to Moses but by what He was. He
proved His nature
by the way He
dealt with the people of Israel. He demonstrated His mercy by relenting through
the intercession of Moses. When the people sinned grievously against the
Lord, it was Moses’ mediation that prevented God from destroying the
people. (Ex 32:10-14) When God forgave them and allowed them to
enter the Promised Land, He withdrew His personal presence and instead asked
His angel to follow them. Again, after Moses’ intercession, He relented
and agreed to let His presence go with them to Canaan.
What, then,
is the character and nature of God that He came to reveal to us? When God revealed His
glory to Moses, He said, “The Lord, the Lord, a God of tenderness and
compassion, slow to anger, rich in kindness and faithfulness; for thousands he
maintains his kindness, forgives faults, transgression, sin, yet he lets
nothing go unchecked, punishing the father’s fault in the sons and in the
grandsons to the third and fourth generation.” The glory of God is seen
in His nature. By revealing to Moses His innermost nature, which is one
of compassion and justice, God showed forth His glory. This God unites
within Himself, compassion and forgiveness with justice and truth. This
is what the responsorial psalm says, “The Lord does deeds of justice,
gives judgement for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses and
his deeds to Israel’s sons. The Lord is compassion and love, slow to
anger and rich in mercy. His wrath will come to an end; he will not be angry
for ever.”
On one hand,
God forgives us for all our sins. On the other hand, He also punishes. This
is what the psalmist says, “He does not treat us according to our sins nor
repay us according to our faults. For as the heavens are high above the earth
so strong is his love for those who fear him. As far as the east is from the
west so far does he remove our sins. As a father has compassion on his sons,
the Lord has pity on those who fear him.” But God also punishes those who
fail to repent and continue in their sins. Indeed, even though God
forgave them, He said, “’Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit
their sin upon them.’” And the Lord sent a plague upon the people,
because they made the calf which Aaron made.” (Ex 32:34bf)
They had to suffer the consequences of their sins, if not, it would be the
future generations. This is what the Lord meant when He said that He
would punish the children that comes after them. The truth is that our
sins do not just affect us but our descendants. It does not mean that God
would arbitrarily punish the generations following our sins. But the
inevitable truth is that children will suffer for the sins of their parents, as
in a divorce, criminal offence, abuses, etc. While these effects of
our sins are obvious, the subtler effects are the values that we hand to them.
This same
truth is illustrated in Christ’s teaching on the parable of the darnel. Jesus explained the
compassion and justice of God. For Jesus, now is the time of grace.
Judgment and punishment will come at the end. Now the Lord gives us the
grace and the opportunity to do good, live a holy life and if we fail, He gives
us time to repent. This is the meaning of the parable. God is
always forgiving and He will not punish anyone who repents. However,
justice would have to be served in the end, for what we reap is what we sow.
Jesus is the
incarnation of God’s grace, mercy and justice. St John wrote, “And the Word
became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his
glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.” He added, “And from his
fulness have we all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given
through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever
seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him
known.” (Jn 1:16-18)
As
Christians, we are fortunate to have seen the face of God. We must
act like Him, in mercy, compassion and with integrity and truth. We are called to imitate
Moses who found favour with God. God talked to him like a friend. He was
a loyal friend of God. Like Moses, we must pray to God as a friend, in
intimacy as Jesus did. Only when we are able to share this intimacy with
God as Moses did, can we then feel the pain, grief, love and mercy of God for
His people. When God grieved, Moses grieved. When God suffered,
Moses suffered. This explains why he was enraged at the obstinacy of the
people when he came down from the mountain to see them worshipping a false
god. Let us through a deep prayer life, follow Moses and enter into the
heart of God and understand His ways, so that we too in union with Him would
also act like God in our relationship with our neigbours, not judging them on
earth but allowing God to be their judge. Presumptuous judgement can
destroy people, good or evil, rather than help them to come to know and love
God. Let God be our savior and our judge. Let Him be with us in our
journey, giving us the strength as He did for Moses who was given supernatural
strength and supernatural food “as He stayed there with the Lord for forty days
and forty nights, eating and drinking nothing.”
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
