Word to the Wise
Monday, July 20, 2009 - Monday in the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
[Exodus 14:5-18 and Matthew 12:38-42]Then the Lord said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward. And you, lift up your staff and, with hand outstretched over the sea, split the sea in two, that the children of Israel may pass through it on dry land."
In the majestic saga of the Old Testament, few moments can equal this one for grandeur and size! No wonder Cecil B. DeMille took it on as a challenge and hired Charlton Heston to play the role of Moses! But even if one has never seen that movie, the imagination can do a wonderful job with the biblical description. The danger is in getting caught up in the mechanics of the moment instead of its place in God's plan of salvation. The reason for the story is not a divine exercise in flood control but the liberation of the children of Israel from slavery. This is only one step, albeit a BIG one in a longer journey that is still underway! The same may be said for Jesus' use of the image of Jonah in the belly of the whale! Lots of ink has been spilled over how Jonah's adventure might have been physically possible. As fascinating as that speculation might be scientifically, it misses the point. Jesus treats Jonah as a prototype and uses Jonah's story to illustrate his own! To gain the full value of these biblical "moments" requires that we have a strong familiarity with the scriptures - something we Catholics don't generally display! It might be worthwhile just for today to go and read the whole part of Exodus about the march through the divided waters and then the story of Jonah! Our own salvation story has its roots in that biblical soil! AMEN
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