Word to the Wise
Tuesday, July 30, 2019 - Tuesday in the 17th Week in Ordinary Time
[Exod 33:7-11; 34:5b-9, 28 and Matt 13:36-43]"If I find favor with you, O Lord, do come along in our company. This is indeed a stiff-necked people yet pardon our wickedness and sins, and receive us as your own." So Moses stayed there with the Lord for forty days and forty nights, without eating any food or drinking any water, and he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments. [Exodus]
How does one restore a broken relationship? The people broke the first of the ten commandments before Moses could get down the mountain with the stone tablets! Moses finds himself betrayed by the people on one hand and dealing with the anger of God on the other - not a comfortable position to be in. His leadership saves the day, however, and he manages to calm God (imagine that!) and rewrite the Ten Commandments - quite an achievement!
Mediation requires a lot of patience. In my pastoral experience, it could be both satisfying and frustrating at one and the same time. Moses cannot guarantee that the people will be perfect in their observance. It would appear, too, that God will have to settle for less than perfect - a bit like the weeds in the wheat parable. Perhaps we. in our own time, should be glad Moses succeeded in getting God to settle for less than perfect! AMEN