Our O Antiphon this evening invokes
God as Adonai and Leader who appeared to Moses in the burning bush and gave him
the Law on Sinai, as we read in the Book of Exodus. God, the Lord of creation, intervened in the
life of his people at a time when they were sorely oppressed and forsaken in
Egypt – when their situation seemed humanly hopeless and Moses himself was
fleeing for his life from Pharoah, having killed an Egyptian and buried him in
the sand.
When we look around us today our
situation is no different – we see people in their millions fleeing for their
lives from war and violence; people enslaved in so many ways by the glamour of
riches and addictions of every kind; the problem of human trafficking and pornography
– just to name a few. There are so many
people searching frantically for happiness which eludes them and lets them
continually disappointed and depressed because they are searching in the wrong
places. Sometimes, like the Israelites
in Egypt, we can feel that God has abandoned us or we even question if He
really exists.
Yet it was He who took the
initiative to reveal Himself to Moses as he went about his daily tasks of
attending the flocks and told Moses that He, God, was well aware of the
suffering of His people and that He intended to rescue them from their slavery
and redeem them with ‘outstretched arm’– and He gave them the Law, not to
enslave them again but to lead them to true freedom as His very own people and
He would be their God.
However He needed Moses’
co-operation – He gave him the mission of leading His people from slavery to
freedom and when Moses objects God simply re-assures him of His Divine Presence
– ‘I shall be with you’ was his reply.
In revealing the Divine Name YAHWEH – I AM WHO AM - He empowered Moses
for his mission.
In this morning’s Gospel the angel
appears to Joseph and tells him that Mary, his betrothed, has conceived a child
by the Holy Spirit and he must name him JESUS because he will save his people
from their sins. He will be Emmanuel –
God with us – thus fulfilling in a wonderful way the promises made to
Moses. Whereas when God appeared in the
burning bush, Moses was told to take off his shoes and come no nearer, as he
was standing on holy ground, Jesus the very Son of God comes among us as a baby
clothed in our skin so that we can all draw close to him and he to us.
As we prepare for his coming to us
anew this Christmas, may we who bear the name Christian open our hearts and
allow him to enter our lives with his light and love; his peace and joy – gifts
which riches cannot buy. May he so live
in us and we in him that we in our turn will become beacons of his light and
hope for all our brothers and sisters near and far as we journey towards our
Father’s house.
O Adonai and leader of Israel, you appeared to Moses in a burning bush
and you gave him the Law on Sinai, O come and save us with your outstretched
arm.
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