The Face of God – Christ The New Moses
The People of God in the Old Testament had encountered God on the holy mountain, manifested by thunder and fire. In a way, such an encounter with God was too overwhelming for them. Who could look upon the face of God and live? Their request that a more tangible way of encountering God might be available is heard. Moses assures them of God’s promise that "A prophet like me will the LORD, your God, raise up for you from among your own kin; to him you shall listen.”
This new Moses would show the people the face of God in such a way, that instead of fear, love would be evoked. Jesus Christ, the new Moses, has reveled to us the very face of God. Whereas the old Moses was a friend of God and could only see God through the cloud and smoke, Jesus the “New Moses” is not called a friend of God. Rather, he is the Son of God; the intimacy of a relationship with his heavenly Father is a union of love so perfect that to look upon Jesus is to look upon the very face of God and not to be afraid.
Because the divine nature of God is, in a way, “hidden” in the humanity of Jesus, waiting to be revealed, we do get glimpses of Jesus power as God. These are not just in the miracles and wonders he did, but on that mountain top where his whole body was transfigured in the light of his divinity. And who was there, as if having stepped through the corridor of time, but the old Moses, now able himself to look upon the face of God in bodily form, in the form of Jesus of Nazareth.
In the Old Testament, the holy prophet would have had to repeat the words of God, prefacing them with “Thus says the Lord”. But now in the New Testament, Jesus speaks literarily as God and prefaces his own words with “I tell you solemnly.” Conscious of this difference, not just in style, but in substance, we hear in the Gospel today, that “The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.”
Although, the people who encountered Jesus did not know him as yet as “God with them”, the demons knew. They even shouted out in horror and fear, for they knew that through the eyes of Jesus of Nazareth, God was looking right at them! Jesus silenced them, not because they knew him to be God in bodily form and that they were “giving away” the “secret”. Christ silenced their confession because “he did not wish that the truth should come forth from an unclean mouth” (St Anastasias to the Bishops of Egypt”). Christ would wait for Peter to make his confession, not out of fear, but out of love and as a gift from God.
When we gather around this altar, we do so within the context of the history of salvation. The candles and the incense we use can evoke those sacred images of the smoke and fire on Mount Sinai that announced the presence of God. This altar, the central focus of our Sunday worship is like that mountain top that Moses climbed to speak with God and negotiated a covenant. But now we see this altar/mountain top in a new light – that of Calvary were Jesus Christ revels the very face of God in the sacrifice of the new and eternal covenant sealed in his own body and blood.
So that we may see the face of God and live, may our preparation for Holy Communion with our Lord always begin with a careful examination of our souls, in the light of Christ’s teaching and of His Church through which the Spirit of Truth is revealed for the sake of our salvation and that of the whole world.
Fourth Sunday after Epiphany (1962 Calendar)
“Senor, salvanos, que perecemos! Levanto’se entonces Jesus e impero’ al viento y al mar, y siguio’ una gran bonanza.” Mientras el evangelio manifiesta la divinidad de Jesus, reclama de nuestra parte una fe cada vez mayor en su divino poder.
The Holy Mass teaches us today about the virtue of overcoming fear with confidence in God’s word. As Christians, we do not deny that danger exists. For this reason, the Church prays “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”.
Although the Introit, Gradual, Offertory and Communion verses sung by us are the same as last Sunday’s and will be the same until we get close to Lent, they take on, in a way, a different “color” as they are sung and prayed from a different perspective. In the background, there is a storm brewing (the Gospel). In the here and now, Christ is no longer sleeping in the depths of the boat. The Introit reminds us that he is seated on high, in the heavens. While we find ourselves caught in the storm, our prayer must rise to the heavens from where our help comes.
The Collect Prayer comes to the point. We will find ourselves in danger and we are often not up for it. We need help from on high. But that help comes to us as God’s grace, infusing in our minds, bodies and souls the strength we need to find our way, with God’s help, out of the entanglements we often allow ourselves to drift into.
This leads us into the Epistle. St. Paul shows us clearly what we have to navigate through and what to avoid if we are to reach safe harbor. But what propels us forward is not fear of God’s wrath; instead it is love of God and our neighbor.
As we negotiate the storms around us, as Christians we must remember that we are also being examples to the world, especially those who are not Christian or part of the Church. The Gradual and Alleluia reminds us of our responsibility to lead the way, so that the nations and the whole earth may turn to God in reverence and in joy. And we get a sense of that joy in being rescued in the Offertory Verse – a sense that being plucked out from the storm and now set down on dry land, we now know how blessed we are and how valuable our lives are – that God saves us for a reason.
And then that Secret prayer of the Priest – like our Blessed Lord in the Gospel, hidden from sight, a reminder to us what is truly happening behind the scenes. We pray that Christ, who offers himself in sacrifice so that we can reach our destination of home safely, will not only cleanse us from sin, but also be our protection until we reach our heavenly destination.
Yet having said that, if Christ points the way homeward through the great and often daunting oceans of life, we cannot go by instinct or feeling. The Communion antiphon will remind us as part of the “crew”, be must listen and accept the clear directions and directives from the mouth of God. He alone knows what waits for us beyond the horizon. He must trust his judgment. And so the post-communion prayer will be appropriate. Our faith in God in the midst of uncertainties, attaches us to Christ who gives us a new kind of strength to use to battle the storms of life. It is Holy Communion, the Bread of Angels. He is our strength, our nourishment, our way home. Fortified by His Body and Blood, we can be courageous in our faith – we go forward – homeward bound.
