This week, the Old Testament reading is most worthy of meditation.
Moses was tending the flock
of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian.
Leading the flock across
the desert, he came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
There an angel of the LORD
appeared to Moses in fire flaming out of a bush.
As he looked on, he was surprised
to see that the bush, though on fire, was not consumed.
So Moses decided, “I must
go over to look at this remarkable sight, and see why the bush is not burned.”
When the LORD saw him
coming over to look at it more closely, God called out to him from the bush,
"Moses! Moses!”
He answered, “Here I am.”
God said, “Come no nearer!
Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy
ground.
I am the God of your
fathers, “ he continued, “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of
Jacob.”
Moses hid his face, for he
was afraid to look at God.
But the LORD said, “I have
witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt and have heard their cry of
complaint against their slave drivers, so I know well what they are suffering.
Therefore I have come down
to rescue them from the hands of the Egyptians and lead them out of that land
into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey.”
Moses said to God, “But
when I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent
me to you,’ if they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what am I to tell them?”
God replied, “I am who
am.”
Then he added, “This is
what you shall tell the Israelites:
I AM sent me to you.”
God spoke further to
Moses, “Thus shall you say to the Israelites: The LORD, the God of your
fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, has sent me to
you.
“This is my name forever; thus
am I to be remembered through all generations.”
-EX 3:1-8, 13-15
So God makes Himself known. Bishop Robert Barron gives us the
exegesis, perhaps his greatest sermon. This is well worth watching.
