Christ and the people in the desert with Moses

This is the third Sunday of Lent—A third of the way through the journey in the desert with Christ who denied Himself all things in readiness for the trial of the Cross on Good Friday. He was hungry, and we too must become hungry for the Word of God and for His Kingdom. He said “My Kingdom is not of this world.” And “I have come not to do away with the law and the prophets but to fulfill them.” “I have come that you may have life and have it more abundantly.”

The whole of the Holy Scriptures, the Old and the New Testament is the revealed Word of God. There is a symbiotic relationship between the two. The Old is a symbol of the New. This is especially true today. The book of Exodus shows us the Hebrews in the desert after being lead out of slavery in Egypt by Moses and the grace of their God. Jesus is in the desert preparing to arrange the release of mankind from the bondage of the slavery of sin. The Jews went through the parted waters of the Red Sea as a form of baptism into Moses. Our entry into freedom and life will be through the waters of baptism into Christ. But this baptism will be effected by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The people in the desert became hungry and thirsty and complained to Moses. God heard them and sent them manna, bread from Heaven, and water from the rock. God told Moses to go with his staff with which he had parted the Red Sea, and strike the rock which I will be standing in front of.” He did so. He struck it twice and water came gushing out. St. Paul tells us that it was Christ who was the rock.

There are three additional things that are present to us today that are meant to lead our minds and hearts to reciprocate the love Jesus shows us.

The first is Jesus is our rock. From which came forth the water of life for the people and for us. When Jesus chose his apostles He chose a fisherman named Simon Bar Jonah, Simon son of Jonah, when he was ready he changed Simon’s name to Petros in Greek, Peter, which means rock. Jesus said: “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Jesus said further, “And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and whatever thou shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever thou shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

The second is that it was Joseph the youngest and best loved of Jacobs twelve sons, who because of the favor shown to him by his father, was hated by his brothers. They decided to kill him but were unsuccessful. They sold him instead into slavery for twenty pieces of silver and he was taken to Egypt. In Exodus 13:19 we read, “Moses took with him the bones of Joseph, who had put the sons of Israel on Solemn oath, it is sure that God will visit you, he said, and when that day comes you must take my bones from here with you.”

The Jewish people have a heritage as do the Christian people whose heritage is Christ, the Son of God through whom all things were made. Jesus said: “I have come, not to do away with the law and the prophets but to fulfill them.” God’s Plan is to make all things new and to fulfill His plan in the heavenly Jerusalem. Is not therefore the ascension of Christ into heaven and the assumption of His Blessed Mother not foreshadowed by the transport of the bones of Joseph from exile into the promised land?

Third is the name of God given to Moses. “If they ask me what is His name what am I to tell them?” “I am who Am. This is my name forever.” God who is the prime mover, the alpha and the omega, is pure being, that which we have is natural life which is born and dies. We do not have being, except that which we share through Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross. And because of Him and only because of Him we, through baptism into Him, share in the life and being of God. We are adopted children, heirs of the kingdom. Of ourselves we can do nothing, all depends on God, on Christ.

And so as in the desert, God today feeds us with His Word in Scripture and brings us food from Heaven in the holy Eucharist in this holy sacrifice of the mass. The mass is the sacrificial offering of Christ, of Himself for our redemption, and it is this sacrifice from which all sanctifying grace flows. It flows through the church which is Christ and which was born from the wound in His side. He is the bridegroom and the church is His bride. The people baptized into Him are the Body of which He is the head, the mystical body of Christ is one in three forms the (Church militant, the Church suffering and the Church triumphant.)

In the Vatican II Document Lumen Gentium there is a chapter titled “The People of God” which is an Old Testament term for the Israelites. It explains that Christ died for all and extends the possibility of His salvation to all with various limitations and conditions. Some may gain the impression that all are automatically saved. Paragraph 14 says this, “The Catholic church is necessary for salvation. Men enter it through baptism as through a door. Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, who refuses either to enter it, or to remain in it.”

The Gospel verse today is “Repent,” says the Lord, “the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”
In the Gospel itself Jesus referring to the people who died in the collapse of the tower at Siloam, says “Do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem? By no means, if you do not repent you will perish as they did.”

Then Jesus gives the Parable of the fig tree that for three years had given no fruit and the gardener was told to cut it down. He begged the owner of the vineyard to give him one more year to fertilize the ground around the barren tree and to cultivate it and if there is no fruit you can cut it down.” This is a parable about the human soul that is looked for to be holy and to bear fruit. We must be sure we are in sanctifying grace. We must not take the salvation of our souls for granted or that of anyone else. In James 5:19 we read, “My brethren, if anyone of you strays from the truth and someone brings him back, he ought to know that he who causes a sinner to be brought back from his misguided way, will save his soul from death, and will cover a multitude of sins.”

In St. Paul’s letter this morning he is speaking of the people of the Exodus in the desert with Moses when he says, “yet God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the desert. … These things happened to them as an example and they have been written down as a warning to us, upon whom the end of the ages has come… Therefore whoever thinks he is standing secure should take care not to fall.”

When Moses had brought the people after forty years to Mt. Nebo from which he could look across the Jordan River and see the promised land of Canaan. He spoke to them for the last time as related at the end of chapter 30 Of Deuteronomy “I set before you life or death, blessing or curse, choose life then so that you and your descendant may live.” He then tells the people that God had told him, “You shall not cross this Jordan… Because you broke faith with me among the sons of Israel at Meribar.” Moses had not shown the holiness of God when he doubted him in the striking of the rock to secure water. He struck it twice, when with faith, once, would have been enough.

The great law giver Moses was not allowed into the Promised Land.

The fig tree that produced no fruit was given a reprieve of one year before being cut down and throws out.

St. Paul says that of the people of the Exodus, “God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the desert. Therefore, whoever thins he is standing secure should take care not to fall.”

Do not take sanctifying grace in your life for granted but secure it and build on it because it is the life of God within you, without which you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

God bless you and keep you.