NOT AS "MY PEOPLE," BUT AS
"YOUR PEOPLE"
Jesus stands
before the Father and says, "Why, O Lord, should Your wrath blaze up
against these people whom I have saved in My own blood. These are My people,
for I have redeemed them, and therefore they are Your people too."
In
today's first reading from the book of Exodus, we witness an extraordinary
scene. God is angry with the people because they had made a molten calf and
worshipped it. When speaking to Moses, God then calls the Israelites not
"My people," but "your people." How fortunate the people
were to have Moses as their mediator before God because at his intercession God
"relented in the punishment He had intended to inflict on His people"
(Ex 32:14).
Someone
even greater than Moses now serves as our mediator before our heavenly Father:
the one about whom Moses wrote, Jesus Christ Himself. At the beginning of Lent, Jesus taught us how
to pray, but more than that, He prayed for us and continues to pray for us and
with us, individually and in the Mass. But we must humble ourselves before God
and bring to Him our weaknesses as we do in the penitential rite of the Mass;
however, we do not have to fear that God will reject our prayers privately or
publicly. We do not pray or worship alone or by our own power. We do so in
union with Jesus.
Jesus
stands before the Father and says, "Why, O Lord, should Your wrath blaze
up against these people whom I have saved in My own blood. These are My people,
for I have redeemed them, and therefore they are Your people too." What we
do each day of our lives has value in the eyes of our loving Father because He
looks upon us and sees in us the Person of His Son, our mediator, and He says:
"This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased" (Mt 3:17). Wow! We
are beloved sons and daughters of our God who loves us dearly; what a great
gift!
During
this reflection ponder on these words and how beautiful they are. At the
Eucharist, are we conscious of our union with Jesus especially at the time of
consecration, when Jesus renews His sacrifice, and at the time that the
doxology is pronounced: "Through Him, with Him, in Him, in the unity of
the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is Yours, almighty Father, for ever and
ever"?
How
do we respond? Is it with a sincere and fervent "Amen"?