Sunday, March 24, 2019

The Call of Moses (2019-03-24, Lent-03)


 Mar. 24, 2019   [ 03 LENT]   

  Exodus 3:1-8a, 13-15 • Psalm 103 • 1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12 • + Luke 13:1-9


Title:      The Call of Moses

[_00_]     We read this Sunday about the call of Moses. Moses, the prophet was selected in chapter 3 of Exodus.  Moses was called – we might say ‘drafted’ or ‘recruited’ – to be a prophet.
          But unlike a person recruited for an executive business position or to run for governor or to be the next New York Giants quarterback (someday there will be someone new … I know it’s hard to imagine anyone but Eli Manning as Giants’ QB), Moses does not believe he has any special qualifications or merits.
          Why is Moses recruited?
          It is his distinct existence in a particular place that makes him an exceptional candidate.
          Moses has not been practicing or in training to be a prophet.
          In fact, Moses has been on the run for decades now. As you may recall, Moses was on the Egypt and Pharaoh top-ten most wanted list, because of a life taken, of an Egyptian slavemaster.
          Moses is a Hebrew, an Israealite and to get away from the authorities, he has been living in the mountains near Egypt. But Moses himself is not a slave.
          It is not Moses’ resume or C.V. that attracts God’s attention. Rather, Moses is in the right place at the right time, though Moses might believe he is in the wrong place at the wrong time.

 [_03_]       Moses objects, saying of himself, I am …
►” unfit”, task is way too big for me, simply too big of a task.
►” uninformed”, I don’t even know your name or what I will tell people about you.
          And, Moses – and you and I are – invited to believe first that God is, in God’s name:
          “I am who am.”
          To believe in existence.
[_05_]     In St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, he writes about the endurance and existence of love. What is most important is that love is, that God is and this way “love never fails.”  (1st Corinthians 13)
We are invited to believe in believe in God - as love - simply for who he is, not because of what he does.
          And, do we not testify to this – that the essence of a person
And the essence of love and relationships is not based on what someone “performs” …but that the person’s existence “informs” us.
          B16 (Pope Benedict XVI) expressed this about the Word of God, that God’s Word is both informative and performative (Spes Salvi, n.__)
          But, our relationships are based first on the fact that a person’s existence “informs”us … consider that a person may fall in love or be attracted to another just because of the person’s existence..not based on what he or she does.
          For example, by the time a child is about 3 or 4 he or she understands that birthdays exist..but we don’t start celebrating birthdays just because the person knows what it its.
          We celebrate the first birthday of a child, not because the child has any idea how big he or she is…or what a gift is… or even what a birthday is. We celebrate simply because the child is and exists.
          It is our faith and practice to acknowledge that God is, that our loved ones are..and that they need us…simply because they exist, not for what they do..
[_07_]     This is also the Catholic ethic and principle of the sanctity of life at all stages, from the child we see only in outline form on an ultrasound as child whose birth is anticipated …or the elderly or infirm person who may also seem to be only an “outline” or shadow of a former self.
          We respect these lives, simply because they exist, for their own sake. God is.
          God exists for his own sake. God creates us for own sake, for our existence, not because of what we do.
          We know that there are things that we can see, but there also things we cannot see.
          I cannot see another person’s soul, whether a child of any age or anybody.  I cannot see another person’s pain. I cannot even fully recognize the effect of my actions in the world or what my own true gifts are.
          These things we cannot see.
          It does not mean that they do not exist.
          But, we can ask for evidence.
          Asking for evidence = prayer = going to the mountain.
And, when we are praying I suggest that we not simply asking God to keep our eyes shut so that we can do stuff that we do not want to do.
And, when we are praying I suggest that we not simply putting our faith in invisible force in the universe that guided Jedi fighters against the Stormtroopers.
That’s Star Wars, not the Gospel.
 We put faith in a personal God who actually freed the lowly Hebrews and later became and man, and died for our sins.
          God is. God is love.
          And God loves you because you exist, because you are. [_fin_]    

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