First Reading Commentary
Moses, who prefigures Jesus as a deliverer
of God's people, is not out for a Sunday stroll across the desert to the slopes
of Horeb with Jethro's flock; he is headed to higher ground to find some grass
which in the plain had died and vanished.
Horeb is called here "the mountain of God" in anticipation of
God's manifestation of Himself.
There is something here for the spiritual
life: In the desert, that is, alone at prayer, souls long for the higher ground
– the spiritual mountain of God – to experience that closeness to God, that
intimacy, which is incomprehensible. This
is a very deep immersion in prayer where God's language of silence speaks that
which only the heart can understand.
Those who are granted this higher gift of prayer are able to sort of get
out of the way of themselves by emptying all the thoughts and concerns, good or
bad, which occupy the human mind and heart.
This emptying of oneself allows the fully surrendering soul to be filled
up with the Holy Spirit Who prays in and through the soul because we human
beings do not know how to pray as we ought (cf.
Romans 8:26).
The Name I AM WHO AM which is a translation
of the Hebrew ehyeh aser ehyeh (אֶֽהְיֶ֑ה אֲשֶׁ֣ר אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה), is as mysterious as Almighty God Himself. These mysterious words portray God as "Being
Itself" and are linked to the Name of Yahweh. The Tetragramatton,
a Greek term meaning, "word with four letters" is a reference to the
Hebrew name for God which identifies the Hebrew letters as: heh, vav, heh and yodh. Reading that as Hebrew
is read, from right to left, what is revealed are the letters Y-H-V-H. You've probably already deciphered the Name
of "Yahweh" in those letters.
It has been translated as: I AM WHO AM – I AM WHAT I AM – I AM BECAUSE I
AM – I AM THE BEING, as well as other titles; and the scholarly arguments as to
what it literally means have been going on for centuries but most can at least
agree that it reveals God as Eternal.
There's a Jewish tradition which states
that the four letters are a representation and that God's proper Name, which
was only known to the high priest, actually consisted of seventy-two letters. The Name YHVH was considered so holy by the
people of Israel that it could not be read aloud except by the high priest in
the temple for fear of taking God's Name in vain and thus was usually replaced
with either Adonai (Lord) or Elohim (God).
Its true pronunciation is also a mystery. Josephus, an ancient Jewish historian, who
belonged to a distinguished priestly family, knew the correct pronunciation but
wrote that it would be unlawful for him to reveal its proper pronunciation
because it was considered too holy to say out loud. With the destruction of the second temple in
70 A.D. the use of the Name slowly passed out of existence and its proper pronunciation
would soon become a mystery.
Moses sees God in the appearance of a
burning bush and after his life had passed, would see Jesus Transfigured on the
mountain as proclaimed in last weekend's Gospel. While it can be said that these are
remarkable gifts to receive, one has to wonder if Moses would have passed on
both in order to have one chance to consume the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity
of Jesus Christ.
Norma McCorvey, the former Jane Roe of Roe
vs. Wade had a conversion experience and is now a pro-life Catholic. She wrote in her book, Won by Love: "I started getting cold chills right before I
went up for my first Holy Communion."
It's a good idea for us to reflect on our own preparation and frame of
mind as we step up to the Blessed Sacrament.
Consider that God has a proper Name which is too holy to be uttered, a
mountain with a burning bush that is so holy that sandals must be removed and
on this same mountain Moses needs to hide his face; and during the Transfiguration
the three apostles are also overcome with fear.
These are encounters with and reactions to holiness; and yet the holiest
gift that we have in the Eucharist is sometimes, sadly, received
lackadaisically.
We are indeed
standing on holy ground at Mass and the gift of the Eucharist is indeed the
holiest and greatest gift this life will ever know. Our Lord sees our afflictions and hears our
cries and strengthens us by nourishing us with His very Self. There can be no greater encounter with
holiness than that.
Second Reading Commentary
If you remove the tactfulness that Saint
Paul uses in this Reading, then the brusque message here is that Paul does not
feel secure in his own salvation - and neither should we. As harsh as that may sound, recall God's
words: "Be converted to Me with all your heart, in fasting and in weeping
and mourning. Rend your hearts, not your
garments and turn to the Lord your God" (Joel 2:12-13). Certainly
those words are banner words for the season of Lent but returning to the Lord is
not a one time process – it is ongoing.
Lent's arrival on the
liturgical calendar every year is a strong reminder of how ongoing conversion
is. Penance is a lifelong endeavor; a
simple belief in God is not enough. A
mere belief in God without conforming to His will suggests a desire to do it "my
way" and many of those ways could very well be, as Saint Paul points out,
evil. The Sacrament of Penance not only
offers the opportunity to turn to God but should also instill in the penitent a
certain sense of humility because in all likelihood the turning away from God,
that is, sin, will occur again. Thus the
Sacrament does not encourage an arrogant "standing secure" attitude
but rather a humble, ever-growing love and trust for God as well as gratitude
for His ever-flowing, endless ocean of mercy.
Gospel Commentary
History is a little hazy about the
Galileans that were killed by Pilate.
There was, however, a sect of Galileans who considered it unlawful to
pay taxes to foreigners, namely the Romans; they also taught that no other man
should be addressed as "lord" which would have been an insult to the
Romans because of Caesar. Many scholars
have concluded that this particular group of Galileans is the sect that is
referenced here in this Gospel. Our
Lord's explanation of these Galileans not being "greater sinners than all
other Galileans" intimates something about Almighty God's allowance of
suffering as a means of purification in order to prepare souls to receive the
crown of incorruptibility; and perhaps those who inflict such punishment as
well as those who were slaughtered without ever repenting could be represented
here as witnesses of their own future final judgment.
How sad it must be for our Lord when He Who
is Love cannot exercise His mercy because of obstinate hearts to the bitter
end. Consider what God said through His
prophet: "My indignation shall rest in you and My jealousy shall depart
from you; and I will cease and be angry no more" (Ezekiel 16:42). But even in
at least some of those cases God does pull out all the stops, so to speak, by
means of chosen souls who have suffered on behalf of humanity. There have been souls who intensely suffered
on behalf of other souls. When something
of the physical body is wounded, miraculously other parts of the body try to
compensate. The same is true for the Mystical
Body of Christ. The wounds of obstinate souls
can be compensated for by cooperating souls.
These extraordinary souls, because of their deep commitment to the
spiritual life, have learned to conform to Christ's example of self-sacrifice. Some examples of such souls are Saint Pio of
Pietrelcina, Saint Rose of Lima, and Saint Gemma Galgani. All cooperators of God's mysterious plan of
salvation are co-workers in the work of redemption but some souls are involved
to a more acute degree. Of course, only
God knows which troubled souls are the beneficiaries of such acts of
self-sacrifice and labors of love. When
dealing with matters of eternity anyone who is currently living, or souls in
purgatory or even those who are yet to be born could be the recipients of such
a merciful gift.
Saint Gregory explains the parable of the
fig tree: "Each one, inasmuch as he holds a place in life, if he produces
not the fruit of good works, like a barren tree encumbers the ground; because
the place he holds, were it occupied by others, might be a place of
fertility."
Take notice in Scripture of the multiple opportunities
that God offers for repentance – and who knows when every possible chance has
been exhausted. On the Cross, for
example, Jesus embraces the repentant thief; but what is perhaps even more
consoling and full of hope is that Jesus doesn't condemn the other thief (cf. Luke 23:39-43). In this case, our Savior's silence or lack of
condemnation should speak to our hearts and convey the message that the other
thief's opportunities for repentance had not been exhausted.
