10 March 2016
Thursday of the Fourth Week of Lent
We rarely think of Moses. And yet he is one of the greatest figures in world history, and certainly a central figure in the Word of God. Poor Moses! He was leader of a “stiff-necked” people – and that really not from any desire of his own to be a leader. He was called, and then found that the people made his life difficult at every turn. And so when the people turned against God – having just received the Law – God simply wanted to destroy them. Why not?
Yet Moses is a mediator for his people, and in that lies his greatness. He is one who cares and loves even the people who are making his life a living hell. In this, Moses is very father-like. How many men put up with endless grief at work, and sometimes at home – adolescent children! – and yet are faithful because, well, because that is what they do, that is to say, that is who they are? How many mothers remain at their posts through years of ingratitude from spouses and children, because they love?
God relented in what He had planned at Moses’ instigation. Of course, we like to think that God wanted Moses to do this all along and was inviting him to be the great and holy man he was called to be. A true friend of God, with whom God could share His broken heart and His sad desire to simply be shuck of the problem – and a man to whom God listened, because God loved him, and he loved God. A man called to be part of the mystery of salvation, mediator, forerunner of the Son of God who pleads for us “at the right hand of the Father.” Spiritual ancestor of Jesus: Moses. We should think more of him.