Psalms and scriptural verses following the first readings in our lectionary help us understand what they mean and deepen our reflection on them. Today’s reading and responsorial psalm are an example:
The Book of Exodus says that:
As Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the commandments in his hands, he did not know that the skin of his face had become radiant while he conversed with the LORD. (Ex 34:29}
The responsorial psalm –from Psalm 99– follows:
Holy is the Lord our God. Extol the LORD, our God, and worship at his footstool;holy is he!Holy is the Lord our God. From the pillar of cloud he spoke to them; they heard his decrees and the law he gave them.
“The LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as one man speaks to another,” yesterday’s reading claimed.( Exodus 33:11) No doubt Moses had a special relationship with God, but our psalm reminds us that the Lord, our God, is holy. We worship at his footstool, with our eyes down. God is beyond human understanding and can be known only in a pillar of cloud, in other words, in a darkness that signifies God’s transcendence.
Still, when we meet with God in prayer our faces are transformed like Moses, because we have accepted God’s invitation to friendship. Jesus, “ image of the invisible God”, who came in the fulness of time, renews and completes that divine invitation.
When Moses asked God to see his glory, God responded “You cannot see my face, for no one can see me and live.” (Exodus 33:20)
St. Ephrem the Syrian explains our limits from the human experience we have looking at the sun: “Our eyes look at the sun but do not see it. Still, we are aided by what we see, but stay unharmed by what we do not see. Our eyes see what they can, but turn away from what we can’t. “
The image of the sun that lights the world is a good symbol of God, whom we describe in our prayers as light. We have imperfect sight; we only see so much. That is so with God; it’s also so in the way we see people and things around us.
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