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Read and listen to The Word of March 18, 2021

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Thursday of the fourth week of Lent

Book of Exodus 32.7-14.

In those days, the Lord said to Moses: “Go, come down, because your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, have become perverted.
They didn't take long to move away from the path I had indicated to them! They made themselves a calf of molten metal, then they prostrated themselves before it, offered sacrifices to it and said: Behold your God, Israel; he who brought you out of the land of Egypt."
The Lord also said to Moses: “I have observed this people and I have seen that they are a stiff-necked people.

Now let my anger burn against them and destroy them. Instead of you I will make a great nation."
Moses then pleaded with the Lord his God and said: “Why, Lord, will your anger blaze against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great strength and with a mighty hand?
Why should the Egyptians say: With malice he brought them out, to make them perish in the mountains and make them disappear from the earth? Desist from the heat of your anger and abandon the intention of harming your people.

Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by yourself and said, I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven, and all this land, of which I have spoken, I will give to your descendants, who will possess it forever."
The Lord abandoned the intention of harming his people.

Psalms 106(105),19-20.21-22.23.

They made themselves a calf on Horeb,
they prostrated themselves before an image of molten metal;
they exchanged their glory
with the figure of a bull eating hay.

They forgot God who had saved them,
who had done great things in Egypt,
wonders in the land of Ham,
terrible things at the Red Sea.

And he had already decided to exterminate them,
if Moses his chosen one
had not been in the gap in front of him,
to divert his anger from extermination.

From the Gospel of Jesus Christ according to John 5,31-47.

At that time, Jesus said to the Jews: «If I were to testify about myself, my testimony would not be true. There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony he bears about me is true. You sent messengers to John and he bore witness to the truth. I do not receive testimony from a man; but I tell you these things so that you may be saved.

He was the lamp that burns and shines, and you wanted to rejoice in his light for just a moment. However, I have a testimony superior to that of John: the works that the Father has given me to do, those same works that I am doing, testify of me that the Father sent me. And the Father who sent me also testified about me.

But you have never heard his voice nor seen his face, and his word does not remain in you; for you do not believe him whom he has sent. You search the Scriptures, thinking that you have eternal life in them: it is precisely they that bear witness to me. But you do not want to come to me to have life. I do not receive glory from men. But I know you: you do not have the love of God within you.

I have come in the name of my Father and you do not welcome me; if another came in his own name, you would welcome him. And how can you believe, you who receive glory from one another, and do not seek the glory that comes from the one God? Don't think that I will be the one to accuse you before the Father; there is already someone who accuses you: Moses, in whom you place your hope.

For if you believed Moses, you would believe me also; because he wrote about me. But if you don't believe his writings, how can you believe my words?".

Saint James of Saroug (ca 449-521)

Syrian monk and bishop
Homily on the Veil of Moses, 12-13

“If you believed Moses, you would believe me too; because he wrote about me"

Mosè ha enunciato i misteri, ma senza spiegarli. Egli infatti faceva fatica a parlare e non riusciva ad esprimersi chiaramente (Es 4,10). Gli è stata conservata apposta questa difficoltà di parola perché i suoi discorsi restassero non spiegati.

Quando è venuto nostro Signore, ha sciolto la lingua di Mosè e oggi sono distinte tutte le sue parole, la sua lingua non è più balbuziente e i suoi discorsi sono chiari come il giorno. Fino a nostro Signore la parola era difficile e restava senza spiegazione e tutto ciò che veniva detto di lei restava oscuro. Il mistero nascosto si ritirava o dietro la balbuzie o dietro il velo (Es 34,33; 2Co 3,14), tanto a lungo finché non è arrivata l’ora della proclamazione al gran giorno. Mosè aveva chiesto di vedere il Padre (Es 33,18); sentiva infatti che il Figlio sarebbe venuto nel mondo apertamente.

Fu allora che il Padre gli ha mostrato il dietro del viso; voleva insegnargli così che suo Figlio si sarebbe manifestato sotto apparenze umane. L’Eterno fece una distinzione fra il volto e le spalle, perché Mosè riconoscesse che la terra avrebbe contemplato il Figlio sotto forma di uomo. (…) E’ a lui che Mosè ha guardato, ed è da lui che è venuto lo splendore di cui risplendeva la pelle del suo viso (Es 34,29).

Lo splendore del Figlio stava nell’insieme della profezia (…); quando Mosè parlava, era lui che parlava con la sua bocca, poiché è la Parola che ispirava tutte le parole della profezia. Senza lui, non c’è per i profeti parola né rivelazione possibile, poiché è la fonte prima della profezia. (…)

But when the Crucifix, the Groom, has come, prophecy has revealed its face and raised its voice in the assembly. The Son of the Virgin lifted the veil from over the Jews; everything became manifest, clear and easy to understand.