Human unfaithfulness and Divine Mercy
March 14, 2024 - Thursday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Exodus 32:7-14; Psalm 106:19-20, 21-22, 23; John 5:31-47
Both the first reading from the Book of Exodus and a fragment from Psalm 106 recall the story of making the golden calf on Horeb (Mount Sinai) and worshiping it. Moses was at the top of Mount Sinai alone, talking with God and receiving from God "the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God" (Exodus 31:18). On the other hand, at the foot of the mountain, the entire population of Israel was celebrating, eating, drinking, playing, and shouting: "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!" (Ex 32:4).
Moses did not know what was going on at the foot of the mountain, but the Lord knew and was furious. As the psalmist says, He was about to exterminate the entire population and begin everything anew with Moses. The promise given to Abraham, "I will make of you a great nation" (Gen 12:2), was offered to Moses: the Lord would make of Moses a great nation (Ex 32:12). Thus, it would be like in the times of Noah when the Lord sent the flood upon sinful humanity and began everything again with Noah. But Moses did not let the Lord do that.
The way Moses turns the destructive wrath of God into mercy is a masterpiece. Exterminating his people would damage God's reputation. If the Egyptians heard about it, they would say: "With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth" (see Ex 32:12). Moreover, by destroying his people, the Lord would break his oath given to Abraham about establishing an everlasting covenant with Abraham and his offspring after him "throughout their generations" (see Gen 17:7).
As we move to the Gospel, we hear a surprising statement of Jesus that the same Moses who turned God's wrath into mercy would now accuse his people because they refused to believe in Jesus (John 5:45). Thus, to reject Jesus seems worse than making a golden calf. Their rejection of Jesus is even more surprising when we take into account that today’s Gospel speaks about four witnesses of Jesus: the Father, John the Baptist, Jesus’ works, and the scriptures.
We hear the voice of the Father testifying about his Son twice at the moment of Jesus’ baptism and then at his transfiguration. Jesus is His beloved Son, in whom He is pleased and whom we should obey. John the Baptist in the desert testified that Jesus is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus' works made it clear that He came from God. Finally, the last witness mentioned today is the Old Testament, and the most important part of it is the five books ascribed to Moses. Jesus says that Moses wrote about him and that the scriptures testify to him. It has always been the conviction of the Church that the mysteries of Christ are hidden in the scrolls of the Old Testament and that without knowing them, we cannot know Christ.
In a final paradox, Jesus said that Moses would accuse them of not believing in Him, but He prayed for them from the cross: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34). The divine mercy that Moses beseeched for the people at Sinai finds its ultimate expression in Jesus, who extends forgiveness to those who rejected Him.