Word to the Wise
Wednesday, July 13, 2011 - Wednesday in the 15th Week in Ordinary Time
[Exod 3:1-6, 9-12 and Matt 11:25-27,1015]Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and lead the children of Israel out of Egypt?." He answered, "I will be with you....."
On the wall of my room here at Holy Rosary Priory in Houston, TX, is a flat wooden figurine. It was carved by an artist in Tucson, AZ, on commission from friends there for my 25th ordination anniversary in 1996. It depicts Moses at the Burning Bush! The figure is rather wide-eyed and stares at me all day long! I don't mind because the incident of Moses encountering God in the burning bush is of great spiritual significance to me.
Moses' curiosity at the sight of the burning bush is what gets the story going. Perhaps this curiosity was inspired by God - the story doesn' t say - but in any case it seems clear that Moses had no idea what he would be getting himself into! The first thing that happens is that Moses must remove his shoes so that he will be immediately and personally in touch with "holy ground!" The second thing is that God reveals himself as "the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob." Moses is now not only in touch with God in a physical sense, he is in touch with God in a historical sense! All of God's history with the Jewish people is there in the present! Now comes the hard part, Moses is going to be a part of God's plan! He finds that hard to believe. God says simply, "I will be with you!" There's more to come in the next couple of days but what we have for today is plenty - at least for me.
For many years I have made an annual retreat in the area of Tucson, AZ, a desert climate. When I was called by my Dominican brothers to take on the position of Novice Master (1988), I made a month long retreat. During that time, I found myself meditating in that magnificent desert setting on the experience of Moses and the burning bush! Who was I to be presenting myself to a group of young men just entering religious life as some kind of model Dominican? The only response I got was, "I will be with you!" As I continued to reflect on this story, I realized that from the very beginning of my interest in religious life (while I was an undergraduate student at Tulane), the same message has been repeated to me over and over again when I doubted my ability to live this vocation: "I will be with you." We will see soon that God will not accept Moses' protests about his inability. He is told simply: "Go! I will be with you."
The same message is given to everyone in the Bible whom God calls. "Do not be afraid!" Each of us in Christian faith is called by virtue of our baptism. "Do not be afraid. I will be with you." AMEN
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