Under Moses leadership,
the chosen people were rescued from Egypt,
and journey to the promised land.
At Sinai, Moses received God’s law.
Meanwhile, the people rebelled,
Turning from God – to worship a statue.
In his anger, Moses broke the tablets of the law,
– a sign of the shattered relationship between the people and God.
Then Moses intercedes for mercy on the people
and God instructs Moses to be ready to receive the law a second time.
That is the context our first reading today
and for a new revelation of God’s nature
in an intimate encounter between Moses and God.
Recall that in Moses first intimate encounter with God,
at the burning bush, God revealed his name.
This name might be written in English script as
YHWH (hold up sign)
a name that became regarded as too holy to say
out of respect for God,
and so,
though the name was written in scripture,
it was not pronounced,
Instead ‘the Lord’ or ‘Lord’ was substituted.
The same tradition is followed when we read in Church.
We do not say the holy name.
The exact sense of the holy name is unknown,
but Moses’ first encounter with God,
in the burning bush,
gives a good clue.
God says:
I am he who is.
Moses is told to tell the people:
He is told to tell the people:
YHWH (hold up sign) has sent me to you.
When spoken by the Lord,
the holy name seems to be a mysterious declaration of identity,
speaking of God’s very ‘being’, of God’s ‘is-ness’.
In today’s reading, we heard that God proclaimed to Moses:
‘Lord, Lord,
a God of tenderness and compassion,
slow to anger,
rich in kindness and faithfulness’
but the text actually is:
‘YHWH (hold up sign), YHWH (hold up sign again),
a God of tenderness and compassion,
slow to anger,
rich in kindness and faithfulness’
The revelation to Moses is that
tenderness, compassion, kindness, faithfulness
are part and parcel of the divine being, the divine identity.
part and parcel of what in later Christian theology came to be called the divine substance.
The revelation demonstrates that God wants us to know who he is,
not just how he acts.
How does Moses respond to this?
And Moses bowed down to the ground at once and worshipped.
He expresses gratitude for the privilege
and he intercedes again for his headstrong people.
This revelation to Moses is truthful, but incomplete.
Today’s feast is about the complete revelation of God.
The one and only God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
reveals himself to us –
reveals himself as
creating, communicating, embracing –
reveals himself as
forgiving, reconciling, life-giving.
What God does is an authentic expression of who he is.
It could not be otherwise: God is truth.
Salvation history –
creation itself,
the Old Testament period,
the Incarnation,
Jesus’ teaching,
Jesus death on the cross,
the perpetual gift of the Spirit –
salvation history is God’s authentic, truthful, self-disclosure.
This isn’t just ‘information’ about God:
the whole of humanity is, in salvation history,
bound into the inner life of God.
It is our privilege,
as those who place their trust in God as he is –
as those who accept ‘Jesus as Lord’ –
it is our privilege to be drawn into God’s inner,
God’s eternal life.
And, it is our privilege
to strive to give authentic expression to it in our lives.
Every Mass is a sharing in this inner, eternal life of God,
as is so wonderfully summarised in the final doxology of the Eucharistic prayer:
Through him, with him in him,
in the unity of the holy spirit
all honour and glory are yours
almighty father
for ever and ever. Amen
At this Mass today,
Let’s be especially conscious that,
like Moses,
we are to respond to who God is
with worship and adoration,
expressing our gratitude for the privilege of knowing God
and we, like Moses,
are to pray for mercy
for ourselves and for all humanity.