Wednesday of 15th week, Ordinary Time, July 18, 2007

Scripture: Exodus 3:1-6,9-12. Psalm 103. Matthew 11:25-27. Lectionary #
391:

"The Lord is kind and merciful!" How true. It takes us a lifetime to
realize this in our own stages on the journey God has given us. We do have
our moments in which both the call to conversion arrives and at other times
we bask in the loving-kindness of God's Presence in our lives. God is
always there and Jesus, too, as Emmanuel or God with us (Isaiah 7:14;
Matthew 1:23). God is with us in the beginning of our journey, in the
middle and at the end. In Exodus we see Moses realizing his call as he
experiences the Presence of God through voice and the vision of a burning
bush. It is here on Mount Horeb (Sinai) that the Sacred Name of God is
given to him even though it is a mysterious name and that he is told that
he is on holy ground. He is to remove his sandals and does! It is here that
God will continue to reveal himself to the People of God through the Torah
which is given on Mount Sinai and celebrated during the feast of Weeks or
Shavuoth (Pentecost). The symbolic forty years are now the forty days
after the Passover. Now is Israel is born and can speak to God through
Moses and through one's own faith in the God who is, the God who was, and
the God who will be. Jesus tells us something similar as we listen to him
praying to his Father in very loving-kind words that help us realize how we
too can relate to God. The words need no interpretation; they speak for
themselves: " At that time Jesus said in reply, "I give praise to you,
Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things
from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. Yes,
Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over
to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and know one
knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wishes to
reveal him. " (Matthew 11: 25-27). Do not we all wish to have a
miraculous vision of something like a burning bush and a voice telling us
it is our loving and kind God who is speaking to us? Yet, this does happen
each day we awaken to the sounds of birds and the beauty of God's creation.
Like little children we need to allow ourselves the gift of "wonder" and to
listen to the voices of children, boys and girls, men and women whom we
come into contact with this day. The Scriptures too are the voice of God
gently touching our listening hearts each day. Yes, the Lord is kind and
merciful. God has made known his ways to Moses and his deeds to the
children of Israel. (Psalm 103). Amen.