From: Exodus 33:7-11; 34:5b-9, 28

The Tent of Meeting

[7] Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from
the camp; and he called it the tent of meeting. And every one who sought the
Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. [8] When-
ever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose up, and every man stood at
his tent door, and looked after Moses, until he had gone into the tent. [9] When
Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the door
of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses. [10] And when all the people
saw the pillar of cloud standing at the door of the tent, all the people would rise
up and worship, every man at his tent door. [11] Thus the Lord used to speak to
Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again
into the camp, his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart
from the tent.

[5] (God) stood with him (Moses) there, and (Moses) proclaimed the name of
the Lord.

God Appears

[6] The Lord passed before him, and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God
merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faith-
fulness, [7] keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgres-
sion and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth
generation.” [8] And Moses made haste to bow his head toward the earth, and
worshiped. [9] And he said, “If now I have found favor in thy sight, 0 Lord, let the
Lord, I pray thee, go in the midst of us, although it is a stiff-necked people; and
pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thy inheritance.”

The Ritual Decalogue (Continuation)

[28] And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he neither ate
bread nor drank water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant,
the ten commandments.

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Commentary:

33:7-11. The tent of meeting, sometimes called the tent of witness, and also the
sanctuary, normally means the main tent in the sacred precinct (cf. chaps. 25-
27). Here, however, it seems to be different firm the sanctuary, because the
sanctuary was located in the center of the encampment and was a place of wor-
ship, whereas this tent is pitched away from the camp and is used for consulta-
tion. This discrepancy may well be due to the fact that this passage belonged to
an older tradition than the Priestly one. Whereas the Priestly tradition lays the
stress on matters to do with worship, the earlier one would have focused more
on social matters.

The sacred writer, through this account, is showing that God continues to be pre-
sent but at a certain distance, and that only Moses has the privilege of speaking
to him “face to face” (cf. 33:20). The people are simply the silent witnesses of
the conversations which take place between God and Moses, but God still shows
them special favor.

34:1-28. This chapter narrating the renewal of the Covenant follows the same pat-
tern as the account of its original establishment (cf. Ex 19-24); but it is shorter,
concentrating on the two main protagonists, God and Moses. Thus, it begins
with the preparations for the theophany and for the encounter with the Lord (vv.
1-5); then follows the revelation of God, and Moses’ prayer (vv. 6-9); and it ends
with the renewal of the Covenant and the so-called Rite of the Covenant (vv.10-
28). The account hinges on the remaking of the tables of stone after the sin of
the golden calf; the tables symbolize God’s offer to keep to the pact and never
to go back on it.

34:1-5. The theophany is described very soberly here, but it has exactly the
same elements as given in chapter 19: very careful preparation by Moses (v 2;
cf. 19:10-11.); the people forbidden to approach the mountain (v.3; cf. 19:12-13);
God appearing wrapped in the cloud (v. 5; cf. 19:16-20).

Comparing the two accounts, this one says less about the transcendence of God
and puts more stress on his closeness to Moses: “he stood with him there” (v. 5).
God’s initiative in drawing close to man is clear to see; it lies at the very basis of
the Covenant.

“He proclaimed the name of the Lord” (v. 6); the context would suggest that it is
Moses who proclaims the name of the Lord, but the Hebrew could indeed be as
the RSV has it, “and he proclaimed his name, ‘Lord’ “. The same wording appears
in v. 6 implying that it is the Lord who is “proclaiming”, defining himself as he pro-
mised he would (cf 33:19). The sacred writer may have intentionally left these
words open to either interpretation; whether spoken by Moses or said directly by
God, they are equal from the revelation point of view.

34:6-7. In response to Moses’ pleading, the Lord makes himself manifest The
solemn repetition of the name of Yahweh (Lord) emphasizes that the Lord is in-
troducing himself liturgically to the assembled Israelites. In the description of
himself which follows (and which is repeated elsewhere, cf 20:5-6; Num 14:18;
Deut 5:9-18; etc.), two key attributes of God are underlined—justice and mercy.
God cannot let sin go unpunished, nor does he; the prophets, too, will teach that
sin is, first and foremost, something personal (cf. Jer 31:29; Ezek I 8:2ff). But
this ancient text refers only in a general way to the fact that God is just, and
puts more stress on his mercy. A person who is conscious of his own sin has
access to God only if he is sure that God can and will forgive him. “The concept
of ‘mercy’ in the Old Testament,” John Paul II comments, “has a long and rich
history. We have to refer back to it in order that the mercy revealed by Christ
may shine forth more clearly. [...] Sin too constitutes man’s misery. The people
of the Old Covenant experienced this misery from the time of the Exodus, when
they set up the golden calf. The Lord himself triumphed over this act of breaking
the covenant when he solemnly declared to Moses that he was a ‘God merciful
and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness’
(Ex 34:6). It is in this central revelation that the chosen people, and each of its
members, will find, every time that they have sinned, the strength and the mo-
tive for turning to the Lord to remind him of what he had exactly revealed about
himself and to beseech his forgiveness” (”Dives In Misericordia”, 4). On “God’s
jealousy”, see the note on 20:5-6.

[The note on 20:5-6 states: “A jealous God”: an antropomorphism emphasizing
the uniqueness of God. Since he is the only true God, he cannot abide either the
worship of other gods (cf. 34:14) or worship of idols. Idolatry is the gravest and
most condemned sin in the Bible (cf. “Catechism of the Catholic Church”, 2113).
Those in charge of worship in the temple are described as being “jealous” for the
Lord (cf. Num 25:13; 1 Kings 19:10, 14), because they have to watch to ensure
that no deviations occur. When expelling the money-changers from the temple
(Jn 2:17), Jesus refers to this aspect of priests’ responsibility: “Zeal for thy house
has consumed me” (Ps 69:9).

On the Lord’s merciful retribution, cf. the note on Ex 34:6-7.]

34:8-9. Moses once more implores the Lord on behalf of his people; he makes
three requests, which sum up many earlier petitions: he begs God to stay with
the people and protect them in their hazardous journeying in the desert (cf. 33:15-
17), to forgive the very grave sin they have committed (cf. 32:11-14), and finally to
make them his own property, thereby distinguishing them from all other peoples
(cf. 33:16) and restoring them to their status as “his own possession” (cf. 19:5).
These three requests are ones that were constantly on the lips of the people of
Israel and in the hearts of everyone who acknowledges God (cf. Ps 86:1-15; 103:
8-10; etc.).

34:7-8. The conclusion of the Covenant is described as soberly as its introduc-
tion (v. 10). On the meaning of the forty days, see the note on 24:12-18.

[The note on 24:12-18 states: ...then Moses stayed on the mountain for forty
days, in close contact with the Lord. These periods of time are not meant to be
exact but rather to show how intense Moses’ relationship with God was; they will
be evoked when important events are narrated later: thus, Elijah walked for forty
days in search of God (cf. 1 Kings 19:8) and Jesus will spend forty days in the
desert before beginning his public life (cf. Mt 4:2).]

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

From: Matthew 13:36-43

The Parable of the Weeds Explained

[36] Then He (Jesus) left the crowds and went into the house. And His disciples
came to Him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” [37]
He answered, “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; [38] the field is
the world, and the good seed means the sons of the Kingdom; the weeds are the
sons of the evil one, [39] and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest
is the close of the age, and the reapers are angels. [40] Just as the weeds are
gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age. [41] The Son
of Man will send His angels, and they will gather out of His Kingdom all causes
of sin and evildoers, [42] and throw them out into the furnace of fire; there men
will weep and gnash their teeth. [43] Then the righteous will shine like the sun in
the Kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.”

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Commentary:

36-43. While making its way on earth, the Church is composed of good and bad
people, just men and sinners: they are mixed in with one another until the harvest
time, the end of the world, when the Son of Man, in His capacity as Judge of the
living and the dead, will divide the good from the bad at the Last Judgment—the
former going to eternal glory, the inheritance of the saints; the latter, to the eter-
nal fire of Hell. Although the just and the sinners are now side by side, the Church
has the right and the duty to exclude those who cause scandal, especially those
who attack its doctrine and unity; this is can do through ecclesiastical excommu-
nication and other canonical penalties. However, excommunication has a medici-
nal and pastoral function—to correct those who are obstinate in error, and to pro-
tect others from them.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

Scripture readings from the Jerusalem Bible by Darton, Longman & Todd

Readings at Mass

Liturgical Colour: Green.

First reading
Exodus 33:7-11,34:5-9,28 ©

'They are a headstrong people; but forgive us our faults'

Moses used to take the Tent and pitch it outside the camp, at some distance from the camp. He called it the Tent of Meeting. Anyone who had to consult the Lord would go out to the Tent of Meeting, outside the camp. Whenever Moses went out to the Tent, all the people would rise. Every man would stand at the door of his tent and watch Moses until he reached the Tent; the pillar of cloud would come down and station itself at the entrance to the Tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses. When they saw the pillar of cloud stationed at the entrance to the Tent, all the people would rise and bow low, each at the door of his tent. The Lord would speak with Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. Then Moses would turn back to the camp, but the young man who was his servant, Joshua son of Nun, would not leave the Tent.

And the Lord descended in the form of a cloud, and Moses stood with him there.

He called on the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, a God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in kindness and faithfulness; for thousands he maintains his kindness, forgives faults, transgression, sin; yet he lets nothing go unchecked, punishing the father’s fault in the sons and in the grandsons to the third and fourth generation.’ And Moses bowed down to the ground at once and worshipped. ‘If I have indeed won your favour, Lord,’ he said ‘let my Lord come with us, I beg. True, they are a headstrong people, but forgive us our faults and our sins, and adopt us as your heritage.’

Moses stayed there with the Lord for forty days and forty nights, eating and drinking nothing. He inscribed on the tablets the words of the Covenant – the Ten Words.

Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 102(103):6-13 ©