Today’s first reading for mass is the story about Moses encountering God in the burning bush on Mount Sinai. The image you see on this website is an actual photograph of what Mount Sinai in Egypt looks like today. Saint Catherine’s monastery sits on the site where Moses met God in the burning bush and then gave His people the ten commandments. The scriptures today refer to this same mountain as Mount Horeb. Biblical scholars believe that Mount Sinai and Mount Horeb are the same mountain though. It is the mountain in the middle of the photo and still resembles a volcano even today. But, it is also fitting that a monastery was built on this site. God told Moses that he stood on holy ground there.
We would do well to remember this when we attend mass each week too. The mass is the holiest hour of our lives and the true presence of Jesus in the tabernacle should be shown the up most respect. It is sad to see people who attend mass and never acknowledge his presence in the tabernacle. What is even worse is when janitors find a host under the pews or even inside a hymnal. We should also be aware that there are cults that attempt to steal the Eucharist during mass, and if we ever see someone that did not consume the Eucharist during communion, to immediately report it to the priest when mass is over. This does happen. Cults sometimes steal the Eucharist to abuse it during their rituals and we should not be naive that this sometimes occurs.
It is also a sacrilege to receive communion knowingly while in a state of mortal sin. In the United States, we have three very prominent Catholic politicians who support abortion (Nancy Pelosi, Kathleen Sebelius and Joe Biden) and openly defy their bishops and the pope himself and receive communion anyway after being told not to. Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden received communion at the mass that installed Pope Francis as the new head of the Catholic church, too. This is a sacrilegious act. These three politicians are personally responsible for countless loss of life in the US, through the laws they have drafted or supported. What will they say when they encounter God face to face for their personal judgement one day? Moses did murder a man but he did not persist in this behavior, especially after he received the ten commandments from God. Moses was forever changed after his encounter with the living God and this encounter eventually affected most of the known world, even today. Christians, Jews and Muslims all acknowledge the validity of Moses’ encounter with God and the ten commandments that he was given for all people.
In the gospel today, Jesus tells us that God often hides Himself from educated and wise people, yet reveals himself to the childlike. That makes a lot of sense, because we can learn about God but that isn’t the same thing as knowing Him, or having a personal encounter with Him. When God reveals himself to simple people, He shows that He exists not in thoughts, but in real life. Our Lady does the same thing. She revealed herself to children who could testify to others about her, knowledge that they had no way of knowing. Like Saint Bernadette said that Mary called herself “the Immaculate Conception”. Saint Bernadette was too young to know what that meant. God works in the same way.
The gospel ends today with Jesus explaining that “no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him”. Perhaps today we could quit thinking so much about Jesus and God and maybe just sit in the quiet, in prayerful contemplation for a few minutes. Maybe go to church and sit in the quiet in front of the tabernacle, or sit in front of Jesus in an adoration chapel, or if we can not do this, then perhaps sit outside for a few minutes surrounded by the beauty of the natural world. Jesus speaks to us through prayerful silence and we can experience our Father’s presence through nature and contemplation as well.
