GOD’S WORD
July 15, 2015 (Wednesday) 15th WEEK in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: Ex 3:1-6, 9-12
Moses pastured the sheep of Jethro, his father-in-law, priest of Midian. One day he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the Mountain of God.
The angel of Yahweh appeared to him by means of a flame of fire in the middle of a bush. Moses saw that although the bush was on fire it did not burn up. Moses thought, “I will go and see this amazing sight, why is the bush not burning up?”
Yahweh saw that Moses was drawing near to look, and God called to him from the middle of the bush, “Moses! Moses!” He replied, “Here I am.” Yahweh said to him, “Do not come near; take off your sandals because the place where you are standing is holy ground.” And God continued, “I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.
The cry of the sons of Israel has reached me and I have seen how the Egyptians oppress them.
Go now! I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.”
Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the people of Israel out of Egypt?”
God replied, “I will be with you and this will be the sign that I have sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.
Gospel: Mt 11:25-27
On that occasion Jesus said, “Father, Lord of heaven and earth, I praise you, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to simple people. Yes, Father, this was your gracious will.
Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.“
Reflection:
Most people find questionable the practice of marrying someone because that someone is rich. And they are quite right. Marriage should unite for life two people who love each other enough to embrace the hardships which are an integral part of the married life. Only real love can sustain a real marriage. There is something incongruous in the idea of “buying” or “selling” married life.
Likewise, since God is pure love by definition (1 Jn 4:8, 16), the only way to meet him in depth is through the gift of one’s heart, not through an intellectual, analytical study of his nature. Such an approach is unsuited for a deep relationship with God. It is too cold, impersonal, detached and ultimately foreign to God’s infinite humility—a humility which inspired him to give himself to us through his Son made man. God will always resist attempts to “comprehend” (i.e. to intellectually seize him) by an effort of the mind. He gives himself to those who are humble enough to approach him with their hearts instead of only their minds. Here one is reminded of Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), that mathematical genius who discovered this “heart approach” in the course of a burning mystical experience, and after that, wrote that “the heart has its reason which reason knows nothing of.”