Word to the Wise
Thursday, July 27, 2017 - Thursday in the 16th Week in Ordinary Time
[Exod 19:1-2, 9-11, 16-20b and Matt 13:10-17]While Israel was encamped here in front of the mountain, the Lord told Moses, "I am coming to you in a dense cloud, so that when the people hear me speaking with you, they may always have faith in you also." [Exodus]
Both God and Moses would discover that no matter how dramatic God's mountain top encounter with Moses would be (read the whole first scripture today), the Israelites could forget about it and turn to idols. What we do have in today's first scripture is a reflection of God's omnipotence in the thunder, lightening, and trumpet blast as described in the story handed down to the scribes who eventually wrote it down. The mountain top remains important if we recall that in the Gospel According to Matthew, Jesus went up on a mountain top and delivered the Sermon on the Mount (with less drama and special effects, to be sure]. When he chose to reveal himself more deeply to Peter, James and John in the event of the Transfiguration, he also chose to do this on a mountain top.
Those of us with an appreciation of the mountains can readily identify the feeling of majesty and awe that can come over us in that experience. This image is not simply a "special effect" but a means of helping us to understand the sacredness of God's revelation and what Moses received from God on Mount Sinai. It can help us understand even more the sacredness of Jesus' preaching in the Sermon on the Mount. AMEN