15th Week in Ordinary Time
“I will be with you.” (Exodus 3:12)
If you’ve ever helped a child learn to ride a bike, you probably remember one important lesson: keep your eyes focused on where you’re going. If you start looking down at the road, nervous about potential obstacles, it will be a very short trip. But if you keep your eyes on the road ahead, you’ll be able to steer safely and go a lot farther.
When God told Moses that he had heard the cries of the Israelites and was prepared to deliver them, Moses didn’t celebrate. He probably wasn’t feeling very confident. He was living as a shepherd for his father-in-law in the wilderness. He had lost his status as a prince in Egypt after committing murder. And the Israelites might not trust him because he was raised as an Egyptian. So when he heard God’s call to lead Israel, he immediately thought of obstacles.
But God didn’t answer his objection. He simply said “I will be with you” (Exodus 3:12). Like a father running behind his child wobbling down the road on his new bike, God would be with Moses. Moses just had to keep looking forward, at the goal of his people’s liberation, instead of the obstacles. Real though they were, these obstacles couldn’t erase God’s call, because God himself would accompany Moses on the journey.
Each of us has been called by God. Each of us has a God-given path to follow. And certainly, each of us has obstacles in that path! But rather than focus on the obstacles, God wants us to lift up our eyes and focus on him and his calling.
Do you have a dream? Some vision of the wonderful things you’d like to accomplish for the Lord and his Church? It’s quite possible that those dreams come from the Lord—just as Moses’ dreams of a liberated Israel came from God. So don’t give up on them just because you see potential pitfalls. Keep on dreaming! Keep your eyes on the Lord and your dreams, not on the obstacles. Just as he told Moses, God is telling you, “I am with you. So let’s get going, you and me, together!”
“Heavenly Father, I believe you support me even when I feel inadequate. Help me keep my eyes on you and take each step in faith in your care.”
Psalm 103:1-4, 6-7; Matthew 11:25-27
God will tell us his name, but we will be branded forever with fire
and will bear within us the scar of his devouring passion. No one can
see God without his eyes being burnt in the fire of the Spirit. No one
can taste God without his heart experiencing a new hunger. No one can
believe without his prayer becoming a cry of immense desire. No one
can speak about God without experiencing silence, for there are no
words to say the name of God.
“No one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son
chooses to reveal him.” Who has the ability to put into words the
glory of Jesus Christ, a man among men, the image of God in the form
off the humblest of human beings? God does not make noise. He reveals
himself in the signs of his presence, through faith, a faith that like
love is a fire.
“I bless you Father … for hiding these things from the learned and the
clever and revealing them to mere children.” Only a childlike heart
has access to true love and to faith. It is good for us that the fire
should keep us from drawing; near, for it is not possible to stare at
God as one stares at the statue of Jesus or Mother Mary.
“No one knows the Son except the Father.” It is good for us to
contemplate Jesus with faces veiled, for we cannot speak of him as we
would explain a mathematical problem or a geometrical theorem. Moses
covered his face because he was afraid to look at God. In a short
time, he will truly know God, for when his people leave the land of
slavery, he will see the God who saw the wretched state of his people
and heard their cries. We truly know the fire only when it has burned
us. We truly experience faith only when we experience the burning
touch of the Spirit.