11th Sunday A, 2008 Print print this page                 

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Three months after the Israelites had escaped from Egypt,
pharaoh and his army; they arrived at the Sinai desert.
There God summoned Moses up a mountain and made a new Covenant with him and the people.
He reminded them of the miracles he performed through Moses to free them from slavery in Egypt;
how he cared for them for three months.
Then he told them of all the peoples and nation in the world he wanted them as his own people.
He told them that they would be treated as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
The people said, whatever the Lord said we will do.
Then God gave them the Ten Commandments; the people agreed to keep them all and the covenant was ratified by Moses and all the people.

The story of the Exodus is very similar to the spiritual journey of many of us.
The Israelites were living a life they disliked but did not know where to turn for help.
Then someone unexpectedly arrived and showed them a way forward.
The promised improvement called for big changes in their life, a journey into the unknown with a steady reliance on God.
At some point they were called to make an expressed commitment to God.

A spiritual journey can be very similar.
Spiritual food can come from the most unexpected source just like the manna they had from heaven and our spiritual thirst may be quenched from an unlikely source like water from a rock.
Hardships may make us want to give up and go back to our old ways just like the Israelites wanted to go back to Egypt and the fleshpots there.
God offered the people everything in exchange for faithfulness to him.
With a few exceptions the people did not live up to God’s offer and lived their life distanced from him.
Those of us who succeed in living up to God eventually can experience the transition from servant to friend, from being acquainted to becoming a lover, from being nothing to a certain equality.
This was why Jesus said to his apostles:
“I shall no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business; I call you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have learnt from my Father.”

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