Thursday of Week 10 in Ordinary Time (Year I)
2 Corinthians 3:15-4:1,3-6 | Psalm 84(85):9-14(Thu10) | Matthew 5:20-26
Even today, whenever Moses is read, the veil is over their minds. It will not be removed until they turn to the Lord. (2 Corinthians 3:15-16)
This curious reference to Moses’ veil brought me back to Exodus. After Moses begs forgiveness from God for the Israelites’ faithlessness, he spends 40 days and nights on Mount Sinai, subsisting only on the glory of God. Upon his return with the second set of Commandments tablets:
he did not know that the skin on his face was radiant after speaking with the Lord. And when Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, the skin on his face shone so much that they would not venture near him. (Exodus 34:29-30)
Eventually, Moses would wear a veil to shield the Israelites from the reflected brilliance of God’s glory, except for the times when he was relaying God’s Word to them.
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From our modern point of view, it’s easy to think of our religious ancestors as stubborn imbeciles. Who wouldn’t want to bathe in the radiance of God, even when it’s a small fraction of the real thing (as it was with Moses’ face)?
Well, we wouldn’t, to be honest.
How else can we explain our wandering minds, our inability to pay attention when the Word of God is proclaimed at the masses we attend?
How else can we explain our repeated refusal to gaze upon the transubstantiated Body of Christ, despite being commanded to Behold the Lamb of God at our Eucharistic celebrations?
How else can we explain our reluctance to arrive early to prepare ourselves for worship, our rush to leave immediately after communion, our overriding urge to “get it over with”?
When we do all this, we are no better than the Israelites of old. We too would be drawing a dark veil over our own hearts, to block out the healing rays of Divine Mercy, radiating out from the Sacred Heart of Jesus Himself.
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Yet even as we perpetrate this rudeness against the One who bled out for our sake, He still patiently waits for us to recognize our faults, to draw back the thick curtains separating us from Him, and to bask in the loving warmth of the eternal love that He promised…and continually delivers.
The Saviour is waiting to enter your heart
Why don’t you let Him come in?
There’s nothing in this world to keep you apart
What is your answer to Him?
Time after time, He has waited before
And now, He is waiting again
To see if you’re willing to open the door
O how He wants to come in
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHJLmdR5gVQ
Lord, we draw a veil over our hearts, because we fear Your judgement, and the loss of our secular pleasures.
Give us the gift of honest self-examination, so that we may come to realize the terrible cost of refusing Your love.
Show us the freedom that comes from letting go of temporal temptations, and turning to You in all our worldly endeavors.
Breathe the Holy Spirit upon us, to set our hearts aflame, and burn away all that stands between us and Your Holy Presence.
For You are our Lord and our God, now and forever.
Amen.