(Our Lady of Mount Carmel)
Readings
 |
| ” Finding of Moses” by Orazio Gentileschi, 1630-33 |
Reading 1: Exodus 2:1-15a
A certain man of the house of
Levi married a Levite woman,
who conceived and bore a son.
Seeing that he was a goodly
child, she hid him for three months.
When she could hide him no
longer, she took a papyrus basket,
daubed it with bitumen and
pitch,
and putting the child in it,
placed it among the reeds on
the river bank.
His sister stationed herself
at a distance
to find out what would happen
to him.
Pharaoh's daughter came down
to the river to bathe,
while her maids walked along
the river bank.
Noticing the basket among the
reeds, she sent her handmaid to fetch it.
On opening it, she looked,
and lo, there was a baby boy, crying!
She was moved with pity for
him and said,
"It is one of the
Hebrews' children."
Then his sister asked
Pharaoh's daughter,
"Shall I go and call one
of the Hebrew women
to nurse the child for
you?"
"Yes, do so," she
answered.
So the maiden went and called
the child's own mother.
Pharaoh's daughter said to
her,
"Take this child and
nurse it for me, and I will repay you."
The woman therefore took the
child and nursed it.
When the child grew, she
brought him to Pharaoh's daughter,
who adopted him as her son and
called him Moses;
for she said, "I drew
him out of the water."
On one occasion, after Moses
had grown up,
when he visited his kinsmen
and witnessed their forced labor,
he saw an Egyptian striking a
Hebrew, one of his own kinsmen.
Looking about and seeing no
one,
he slew the Egyptian and hid
him in the sand.
The next day he went out
again, and now two Hebrews were fighting!
So he asked the culprit,
"Why are you striking
your fellow Hebrew?"
But the culprit replied,
"Who has appointed you
ruler and judge over us?
Are you thinking of killing
me as you killed the Egyptian?"
Then Moses became afraid and
thought,
"The affair must
certainly be known."
Pharaoh, too, heard of the
affair and sought to put Moses to death.
But Moses fled from him and
stayed in the land
of Midian
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Commentary on Ex 2:1-15a
In response
Pharaoh’s order to have all Hebrew new-born male babies killed, Moses mother
places him in a basket and hides him in the river. There discovered by the daughter of Pharaoh,
he is ultimately adopted by her. The passage compresses the timeline of his story
moving from infancy to saying simply “On one
occasion, after Moses had grown up…” It is clear that the adult Moses knows of his birth right as he
sides with the Hebrews against the Egyptians.
The passage concludes with Moses hiding from Pharaoh in Midian.
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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 69:3, 14, 30-31, 33-34
R. (see 33) Turn to the Lord in your need, and you
will live.
I am sunk in the abysmal
swamp
where there is no foothold;
I have reached the watery
depths;
the flood overwhelms me.
R. Turn to the Lord in
your need, and you will live.
But I pray to you, O LORD,
for the time of your favor, O
God!
In your great kindness answer
me
with your constant help.
R. Turn to the Lord in
your need, and you will live.
But I am afflicted and in
pain;
let your saving help, O God,
protect me;
I will praise the name of God
in song,
and I will glorify him with
thanksgiving.
R. Turn to the Lord in your
need, and you will live.
"See, you lowly ones,
and be glad;
you who seek God, may your
hearts revive!
For the LORD hears the poor,
and his own who are in bonds
he spurns not."
R. Turn to the Lord in
your need, and you will live.
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Commentary on Ps 69:3,
14, 30-31, 33-34
Psalm 69 is an individual
lament. The psalmist sings of great
trials and perils, describing the singer’s dire situation. Faith and hope in the Lord, says the song,
sustains those in need.
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Gospel: Matthew 11:20-24
Jesus began to reproach the
towns
where most of his mighty
deeds had been done,
since they had not repented.
"Woe to you, Chorazin!
Woe to you, Bethsaida
For if the mighty deeds done
in your midst
had been done in Tyre and Sidon
they would long ago have
repented in sackcloth and ashes.
But I tell you, it will be
more tolerable
for Tyre
and Sidon
And as for you, Capernaum
Will you be exalted to
heaven?
You will go down to the
netherworld.
For if the mighty deeds done
in your midst had been done in Sodom
it would have remained until
this day.
But I tell you, it will be
more tolerable
for the land of Sodom
Commentary on Mt 11:20-24
This passage
follows the parable of the “Children in the Marketplace” in which the Jesus addresses
those who have heard the words of both John the Baptist and himself. He accuses
them of not being willing to hear that they must turn away from sin and repent.
In this passage
he goes further chastising the towns in which he has performed great
signs. As in the parable that preceded
it, this selection speaks of the punishment reserved for those who refuse to
hear the word he has spoken. In addition to ignoring the Lord’s revelation,
they also continue to ignore the law and prophets. Their fate, he tells them, will be worse than
that of Sodom
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Reflection:
Scripture accelerates the
development of faith and understanding of those who have sought to do God’s
will over the millennia. In the first
reading from Exodus we see God’s plan for Moses unfold. We hear of his birth and, with no mention of
his upbringing by Pharaoh’s daughter we find him outraged at the treatment of
his kinsmen (he knew his heritage and birth right). In response to the treatment of this member
of his extended family he kills the Egyptian.
Granted this is a historical
account of God’s revelation stated in human terms. Still, are we surprised that there is not
moral outrage expressed at one person killing another? Recall – the Law of Moses (see the irony) has
not yet been handed on to Israel
We jump ahead now, two
thousand years, to the time of Jesus.
With the Law now firmly in place and sins against God clearly defined,
Jesus himself has made it clear that in God’s eyes (His eyes) the very thought
of violence against one’s brother of sister is sinful.
This compression in
understanding God; who was revealed first through the Law and the Prophets and
then completed in Christ Jesus who came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets,
gives us the foundation for our own moral center. Our actions are not judged just upon the
heart of the Law that Moses brought - the Decalogue or Ten Commandments. Our justification comes from following the
Law fulfilled in Christ. It is this
measure by which we will be judged and this measure to which we must apply all
our actions. And the Gospel lets us know
that failure to learn this lesson will have consequences.
Today we rededicate ourselves
to truly internalizing God’s Law fulfilled in Jesus. We pray that God will give us the strength
and discipline to follow that law and bring him Glory.
Pax
[2]
The picture is ” Finding of Moses” by Orazio Gentileschi, 1630-33
[3]
The readings are taken from the New American Bible with the exception of the
Psalm and its response which were developed by the International Committee for
English in Liturgy (ICEL). This re-publication is not authorized by USCCB and
is for private use only.
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