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"TAKE OFF YOUR SHOES" Our theme for today’s program is: “TAKE OFF YOUR SHOES”. The story of Moses and the burning bush is very famous. Few stories can match it for instant recognition and staying power in the human imagination. Speaking about imagination, I thoroughly enjoyed the animated movie “The Prince of Egypt”. I actually prefer it it some ways to the classic Cecil B. DeMille movie “The Ten Commandments” starring Charlton Heston. One scene in “The Prince of Egypt” stands out. When the Hebrews crossed the dry bed of the Red Sea, they looked at the great walls of water banked up on each side. They saw fish, even a whale, swim to the very edge of the water to look down at the Hebrews passing by. This is more than a “once in a life-time” experience—it’s a “once in the history of the world” experience. Each time I stand before the glass of a great public aquarium to look at the fish looking at me, I think of the Hebrews and, in the words of Sacred Scripture, how they “(fell) that day into the hands of the living God”. [Heb 10:31] Stories possess power. The story of Moses is a story of power. Moses, a fugitive prince of Egypt, has been a shepherd about 40 years in the land of Midian, far to the east of his homeland. Now about age 80, strong and youthful as people were in those days, he beholds a bush burning without being consumed. He is curious and determined. Moses goes to investigate and “fall(s) into the hands of the living God”. He learns that he will depart Midian and leave the flocks to his father-in-law Jethro. Moses must begin the task of shepherding people, his people. The Hebrews, God’s chosen people, are languishing in Egypt. Oppressed by their Egyptian overlords who refuse to let them worship the One True God, the Hebrew slaves are at the breaking point. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Our Divine Lesson for today is called “TAKE OFF YOUR SHOES”. God sends Moses to humble mighty pharoah and the proud Egyptians and rescue his enslaved people. This, in a nutshell, is the story of Moses. His story is found in the Book of Exodus, one of the five books of the Pentateuch. “Exodus”, a Greek word, means “departure”, “going out”, “to journey from”. Moses will deliver the Hebrew people from slavery. Under his leadership, God’s people go out from Egypt. They depart. Their journey from Egypt, 40 years in duration, will end at the Jordan River where Moses prepares them to cross into “a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey” [Exo 3:8] known as Canaan. The biography of Moses is amazing and awe-inspiring. We marvel at the completeness of his biography. Here’s a man who lived in antiquity—How long ago?—5,000 years?—and many people today know more about Moses than their own grandparents. This helps to explain the power of the story. The burning bush was beautiful and wondrous to behold. But beauty has a price, and for Moses, the experience was costly indeed. The burning bush marked the death of Moses’ pastoral life; it heralded the beginning of his prophetic life. God gave him a new flock, vast in number, almost impossible to manage. What did God’s people call themselves? It’s not known for sure. Outsiders, however, called them Hebrews. This is how the non-ethnic name Hebrew became common. Sometimes we use the word “Hebrew” to refer to someone shouldering a great burden or doing oppressive work. Let’s turn now to Exodus chapter 3, starting with verse 1: NOW MOSES was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian; and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. AND THE angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush; and he looked, and lo, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. AND MOSES said, "I will turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt." 4. When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here am I." THEN HE said, "Do not come near; put off your shoes from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." AND HE said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. THEN THE Lord said, "I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters; I know their sufferings, 8. and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. “AND NOW, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. 10. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring forth my people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt." BUT MOSES said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?" 12. He said, "But I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought forth the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God upon this mountain." THEN MOSES said to God, "If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?" God said to Moses, "I am who I am." And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'I am has sent me to you.'" GOD ALSO said to Moses, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you': this is my name for ever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.” [Exo 3:1-15] I call the burning bush an “unexpected altar”. On his holy mountain of Horeb, God placed an unexpected altar in front of Moses. When Moses saw the bush, he didn’t realize at first what he was seeing. He was intrigued, however, by the bush remaining intact. The fire didn’t consume it. So he came closer. As readers of the Bible story, we know immediately that God chose the bush as a holy and sacred meeting place. We know this by the presence of the Lord’s angel in the fire. The Book of Genesis makes many references to angels. Angels deliver God’s message to human beings. They do his work. On very important occasions, God approaches people and speaks to them directly through the presence of his angel. Therefore, the angel’s presence in the midst of the burning bush tells us that God waits for Moses. What a sight! What a thought! Notice how personal God is. He calls Moses by name. Then he teaches Moses how to be reverent. He tells Moses to stand back and remove his shoes. God gives the reason why. He tells Moses that special reverence is required because he stands on holy ground. I’m convinced that all of us, like Moses, are prepared for a special encounter with God—not necessarily once. Perhaps many times. Our meeting with God may not bring the Hebrews out of Egypt, but we must remember that all encounters with God are important. They are more important than we can possibly know at the time. Certainly once, but perhaps again, God places an unexpected altar in one ’s path. This is the moment of decision. You may look at the unexpected altar or refuse to see it. You may approach it in wonder and awe or turn aside. What does the Exodus story teach us about unexpected altars? God prefers to approach human beings in the ordinary circumstances of life. God uses ordinary things as symbols or signs of his extraordinary power and grace. This is to say that God may place the unexpected altar in front of you at work, or at home, at school, or even behind the wheel of a car. Like St. Paul, I was “on the road” when God placed an unexpected altar in my path; I wasn’t blinded by the light like he was, nor had I made countless enemies by persecuting the Body of Christ. My situation was inconsequential compared to St. Paul. But I was literally on the road, my hands on the wheel of my car. Many years ago, I was corrupting my life, wasting my talents, and pursuing relationships that were pointless and destructive. I was a sinner, 18 years away from Church, living as though I had never been baptized. It was 1985. I had taken a day off work at the bank, a Tuesday, to shop and run errands—as executive vice-president and chief operations officer of the bank, I could do that. I had no care in the world, or so I thought, even though my hungry soul was begging for spiritual food. That spring day was warm and beautiful, and after getting everything done, I headed home in my Chrysler 5th Avenue. I had no idea, as I passed St. Anne’s Catholic Church in Houston, Texas, I was moments away from a reckoning with God. I thought nothing about turning the corner from Westheimer Road onto Shepherd Street. St Anne’s was a Houston icon, a few blocks south from where I lived. A familiar landmark, nothing more. Thirty-six years of life—I didn’t know what a Catholic Church looked like on the inside. Halfway between St. Anne’s Church and my home, everything blurred—I was driving my car on a busy street, and suddenly I couldn’t see a thing. Out the haze, the fog, or whatever it was that enveloped me, I heard this soundless message, word for word: YOU ARE to go to that Church. You are to go through those doors. You are to get down on your knees and thank me for everything I have done for you. The blurry envelope dissolved but not before the words were indelibly engraved on my heart. Everything in sight—the buildings, homes, stores, landscaping—jumped back at me with a startling crispness and brilliance. I drew several deep breaths and shook my head. My life would never be the same again. I had to obey those heavenly words. The long road of conversion and reconciliation with God had begun. I didn’t know what would happen or where the words would lead me. I trusted those words like my own heartbeat; I could no more ignore them than I could command my heart to stop. To betray those words would mean betraying myself. Not knowing the Catholic religion then, I had no idea that my reckoning with God was on Tuesday of Holy Week. I did know about Easter Sunday that very next weekend. Not wanting to be crushed in the Easter crowd, I wanted to wait until the second Sunday after Easter to go to St. Anne’s for the first time. I called a girl friend whom I knew to be Catholic. Her name was Meg. She was stunned to hear me, an ex-Presbyterian ask her, a Catholic, to take me to Church. Of course, only St. Anne’s Catholic Church would do. I went to that Church. I went through those doors. I got down on my knees and thanked God for everything he had done for me. I had come home to a Church—the Catholic Church—that I’d never known. I drew near to the high-priestly life of Jesus Christ before whom I count myself as nothing. It was Divine Mercy Sunday. Over the years, and particularly on the day of my ordination to the Catholic priesthood (September 12, 1992), I’ve come to realize that my duty to thank God never ends. In fact, the act of thanksgiving is eternal and possesses infinite merits in our Lord Jesus Christ. And so I thank God for the unexpected altar which he placed in the road before me on that beautiful day in 1985. I thank him for my priesthood, unworthy as I am and for the Church, my dearest and worthy Bride. I thank God, this present moment, for the graces and blessings of my future which he alone knows. The Bible verse of my ordination Mass card (September 12, 1992) reveals the reason why: IT IS the Lord who goes before you; he will be with you, he will not fail you or forsake you; do not fear or be dismayed. [Deu 31:8] These words are the words of Moses to the children of the Hebrews preparing to cross the Jordan River into the land of milk and honey. It has to be considered a tragedy when a person turns away from the altar God sets in his path. There are many reasons, I suppose, but no excuses. To turn away from the altar God chooses is to reject God himself. Why would a person turn away from the One True Loving, Just and Merciful God? Blindness? Ignorance? Stupidity? That Moses led his flock to pasture on “Horeb, the mountain of God”. [Exo 3:1] offers us a clue. Each and every person needs to recognize and respect what is holy. We don’t need to erase the “holy” out of the public square; we need to respect it. Moreover, we need to sanctify the public square. All churches, shrines, and holy places deserve our utmost respect. The signs and symbols of all religions and faith communities need to be highly esteemed and accorded respect. You and I may disagree about the value of a particular symbol or sign. An example of this might be my love for the crucifix and your love of a blank cross. But sincere and public respect for each other’s cherished faith symbols and places of worship strengthens everyone’s faith life. If faith communities were forced to become secret, closed societies for fear of hoodlums, mobs or government agents, this would be an epic tragedy. I could no longer remain confident about this nation’s future. If you want to be ready to discern and approach the altar God places in your path, seek God with a sincere heart, respect what is holy, and defend the right of all persons to stand on the holy ground of an informed conscience and worship as God directs them. Never laugh or make fun of holy persons, or holy signs and symbols, or holy places. Leave the company of crude and stupid people who do such things. The signs and symbols of faith are not weapons, and holy places are not fortresses. Faithful men and women of good will do make an army. How profoundly sad we feel when a human being forfeits, or squanders, or sells his uniqueness to the lowest bidder. The phrase “lowest bidder” refers to hatred. Hatred is the lowest common denominator of human life. It can insinuate itself into everything. Many forms of hatred are like mold or fungus, hard to see, hard to get rid of, and often deadly. Our Lord understood this and warned his apostles—each called by name and given a unique mission—of its ugly power: IF THE world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. [Jn 15:18-19] Equally tragic is the rejection of a person’s God-given uniqueness and mission by his family or community. This is precisely what happened to our Lord Jesus Christ. The first chapter of John’s gospel, otherwise a glorious prologue of the eternal Logos (Christ, word, reason), sounds a note sorrow in these words: THE TRUE light that enlightens every man was coming into the world. 10. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not. 11. He came to his own home, and his own people received him not. [Jn 1 :9-11] The words of Exodus chapter 3 show how God bends near to us, reveals himself to us, and calls us into relationship with him: “When the Lord saw that (Moses) turned aside to see (the burning bush), God called to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here am I.’” [Exo 3:4] The stakes are very high indeed. The fact that God calls Moses by name proves that God is very close, very caring and very personal. The man named Moses is unique—do you see?—and this reality is fully understood only if you accept the uniqueness of Jesus Christ and the mission God entrusted to him of saving the world. Jesus the Christ, Son of God and Son of Man, was unique and irreplaceable. He had a mission. But he was rejected. Long before his passion and death on the cross, Jesus suffered a kind of passion and death in his home village of Nazareth. After hearing the Lord read from the scroll of Isaiah in the synogogue, the villagers identified Jesus as a prelude for humiliating him. They declared him a no-account. They rejected his mission. They took offense at him. Here’s what Matthew’s gospel has to say: AND COMING to his own country he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, "Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? 55. IS NOT this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? [Mt 13:54-55] In the opinion of the people of Nazareth, Jesus had no right to be wise. He had no right to perform mighty works. Why? Because they knew him when he was a little boy, the carpenter’s little boy. A son of a carpenter could no more master wisdom or perform mighty works than a cat could fly. Clearly, the people of Nazareth, wallowing in hatred and arrogance, had forgotten a crucial piece of their own history. And they were diminished because of it. They had forgotten all about Moses who was a shepherd for 40 years. God called a shepherd of flocks to be a shepherd of his people. But Moses had been a prince of Egypt, you say. But that life was over, even dead. The old Moses didn’t exist anymore except, perhaps, as a memory. And if Egypt and its princes were so great, why did God call forth Moses rather than one of them? We could speculate forever, but the fact remains that God didn’t call a prince of Egypt to approach him at the burning bush. He called a shepherd to him. He called him by name and gave him a mission to deliver his suffering people. The burning bush marked the end of Moses’ quiet existence and the beginning of a long and tumultuous 40 years of leadership. He would have to confront pharoah and his mighty army. His people would rebel in the harsh and extreme deserts of Sinai. He would beg for rest but find none. This was the personal price Moses would pay as the hope of his people: AND NOW, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. 10. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring forth my people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt." [Exo 3:9-10] In this day and age, there’s a vast ocean of people, oppressed and crying out for deliverance. They bear very great burdens of temptation and sin. Satan is their taskmaster. He forces them to build pyramids of consumerism, sexual exploitation, abortion mills, impoverishment and self-idolatry. God has heard their cry. He knows their sufferings. [cf. Exo 3:7] Even now, in this hour, God is placing an unexpected altar in the path of good young men who woke up this morning and set about accomplishing the work of an ordinary day. Some are college students, others are accountants, teachers, or sales-reps. And they’ve seen the fire. God is calling them to shepherd his lost people. He is calling them to deliver his people from the darkness of broken families. He is calling them to lead them out of cities of the dead. God’s shepherds will gather them in his Church, and sanctify them by water, the laying-on of hands, and the Holy Spirit. God’s shepherds will consecrate his people in his name. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ What does the Spirit teach us at the altar of truth? Given that all human beings are created in the image and likeness of God, and each human being is unique and irreplaceable, the conclusion is obvious. God calls each and every human being into existence for his divine purpose—to each he entrusts a mighty work in his name. Know this. The God of all generations [cf. Ex 3:15] is calling good young men to be priests. He is asking them to take the shoes from their feet, for they stand on holy ground. [cf. Exo 3:5] He has given them a mission to bring the light of Christ to people who walk in darkness. [cf. Jn 8:12] God will go with them. He is at their side. And he has given a sign to all young men who answer his call to become priests. They shall lead the members of God’s one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church [“Nicene Creed”] to worship at his holy altar and adore him in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. For your part, don’t be a Nazorean to the young man who wants to be priest. Don’t ridicule and make fun of him. Don’t think that just because you know him—his mother and father, or his hometown, or his intelligence or personality, whatever—that you should talk him out of his vocation. Don’t think that just because he’s a carpenter, or a store clerk, or a medical technician or your only son or brother that a young man can’t or shouldn’t be a priest. Our Lord Jesus Christ was an only son. And God sent him to you. And he died for you. Don’t take offense at him or the young man who wants to follow in his priestly footsteps. You role is to carry his shoes while he approaches God on holy ground. Young men, I appeal to you to consider the “mighty work” [cf. Mt 13:54] of priesthood in our beloved Roman Catholic Church. I believe you will. Nevertheless, I pray earnestly that you will not hide your face from our loving God who calls you to the priestly vocation. I pledge to lift you up in prayer to the Lord Jesus Christ. I will offer Masses for you. Stay watchful and alert, and be attentive to the Lord so that when he places before you the unexpected altar, you will be ready. I give you the joy of your common priesthood of baptism and look forward to the day of a great harvest of ordained clergy and perhaps your own priestly ordination in the Roman Catholic Church: “God said to Moses, ‘I am who I am.’ And he said, ‘Say this to the people of Israel, “I am has sent me to you.”’” [Exo 3:14] +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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