Today’s reading from Exodus tells us that one month after they leave Egypt,” the whole assembly of the children of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron.” The children of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died at the LORD’s hand in the land of Egypt, as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread! But you had to lead us into this desert to make the whole community die of famine!” (Exodus 16:4-5)

One month after they leave Egypt, they’ve forgotten the Lord’s mighty deeds and promises.

Food and water run out, triggering their complaints, but God gives them enough to go on. Manna, bread from heaven is their daily food. Water comes from the rock that Moses strikes with his wooden staff. A cloud by day and fire at night guide them.

Still, they grumble, and so do we. Food and water figure in climate change today, so does a confusion of leadership. As the world moves on through the desert now, can we learn from our ancestors’ journey then? 

That’s what St. Paul told the Corinthians to do in the 10th chapter of his first letter to them. “These things happened to them as an example, and they have been written down as a warning to us…” 

Jesus promises to be Bread from heaven, the rock for our thirst.  (1Cor. 10:4) The Spirit is a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

Let’s expect grumbling–these are tough times– but hopefully that grumbling leads to a deeper faith and also a determination to take on the challenges of our time. The Book of Deuteronomy, the last of the 5 books of the Law, ends with Moses and the people poised to enter a new land after almost 40 years of desert wandering. Significantly, they’re poised, not there yet, not yet in possession, still hoping in the promises of God. 

We need this large view of history today, don’t we?

The revised readings and prayers at Mass for the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene reflect beautifully on this great saint.

All the gospel writers give a prominent place to women in their narratives of Jesus’ resurrection, but  John’s gospel singles out Mary Magdalene especially. John 20: 1-2;11-16, Omitting some verses describing Peter and the other disciple visit to the tomb, our gospel today ends: “Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ’I have seen the Lord,’ and then reported what he told her.’

On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.”

  Mary stayed outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb and saw two angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet where the Body of Jesus had been. And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken my Lord, and I don’t know where they laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there, but did not know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” She thought it was the gardener and said to him, “Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni,” which means Teacher. Jesus said to her, “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and then reported what he told her. John 20: 1-2;11-16

 Mary is an Apostle to the Apostles, announcing to them and to us that the risen Jesus  said he was ascending to “my Father and your Father, my God and your God.”                                                                                                                                                                           Her journey to the tomb early Easter morning  is described in the Song of Songs:

On my bed at night I sought him whom my heart loves. I sought him but did not find him. I will rise then and go about the city: in the streets and crossings I will seek him whom my heart loves.

“My soul is thirsting for you, my God.” The responsory psalm proclaims.

Though she came with other women, Mary stayed at the tomb, weeping, and then the dark garden was filled with light when Jesus spoke her name, “Mary.”

“Before all others”  God called Mary to announce the great joy of the resurrection, the opening prayer of her feast says. May we “through her intercession and example proclaim the living Christ and come to see him reigning in glory.”

The preface for her feast day gives thanks:

“In the garden he appeared to Mary Magdalene,  who loved him in life,  who witnessed his death on the cross, who sought him as he lay in the tomb ,who was the first to adore him when he rose from the dead  and whose apostolic duty was honored by the apostles that the good news of life might reach the ends of the earth.”

“May the holy reception of your mysteries, Lord, instill in us that persevering love with which Saint Mary Magdalene clung resolutely to Christ her Master” (Prayer after Communion}                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

For this week’s homily, please watch the video below.

This Thursday, appropriately, we read the Passover account from the Book of Exodus in our lectionary. The mystery of the Passover is the mystery of Christ, the beautiful homily of Melito, an early bishop of Sardis, says.

“For the sake of suffering humanity he came down from heaven to earth, clothed himself in that humanity in the Virgin’s womb, and was born a man. Having then a body capable of suffering, he took the pain of fallen humanity upon himself; he triumphed over the diseases of soul and body that were its cause, and by his Spirit, which was incapable of dying, he dealt man’s destroyer, death, a fatal blow.

  He was led forth like a lamb; he was slaughtered like a sheep. He ransomed us from our servitude to the world, as he had ransomed Israel from the hand of Egypt; he freed us from our slavery to the devil, as he had freed Israel from the hand of Pharaoh. He sealed our souls with his own Spirit, and the members of our body with his own blood.

  He is the One who covered death with shame and cast the devil into mourning, as Moses cast Pharaoh into mourning. He is the One who smote sin and robbed iniquity of offspring, as Moses robbed the Egyptians of their offspring. He is the One who brought us out of slavery into freedom, out of darkness into light, out of death into life, out of tyranny into an eternal kingdom; who made us a new priesthood, a people chosen to be his own for ever. He is the Passover that is our salvation.

  It is he who endured every kind of suffering in all those who foreshadowed him. In Abel he was slain, in Isaac bound, in Jacob exiled, in Joseph sold, in Moses exposed to die. He was sacrificed in the Passover lamb, persecuted in David, dishonored in the prophets.

  It is he who was made man of the Virgin, he who was hung on the tree; it is he who was buried in the earth, raised from the dead, and taken up to the heights of heaven. He is the mute lamb, the slain lamb, the lamb born of Mary, the fair ewe. He was seized from the flock, dragged off to be slaughtered, sacrificed in the evening, and buried at night. On the tree no bone of his was broken; in the earth his body knew no decay. He is the One who rose from the dead, and who raised man from the depths of the tomb.

 At that time Jesus said in reply,^* “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike.

Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.

“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”

There’s new interest today in the founders of my country: Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Franklin. New biographies and media presentations, present their struggles to bring our country to birth in trying circumstances. Yes, they had clay feet, like all of us. They could be vain, deceitful, wrong-headed and trapped in the limited vision of their time. So are we. But they were also brave, idealistic, courageous, patient, willing to sacrifice for the unknown. We hope to imitate them. 

They tell the story that General Washington after the war met with a number of his disgruntled troops, who hadn’t been paid or rewarded by the Continental Congress for their long years of hard service. The ex-soldiers were angry, on the brink of another revolution. 

Washington took out a paper to address the troops, but he couldn’t read it. His eyesight was failing him. So he put on a pair of spectacles. “Excuse me, gentlemen,” he said, “ but I have lost my sight in the service of my country. “

No one remembered what Washington said that day, but the mood of the men changed. They remembered what this man had gone through. 

It’s important to honor our heroes, to keep them in mind.  We’re living in an unfinished world, an unfinished church and an unfinished country. They lived that way too. We must learn from them how to do what we are given to do.

In the gospel today, Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest…Learn from me.”  

He is the Great Hero. Remember his story: his poor birth, his love for those with little, his assurances of God’s care, his cruel death and then his resurrection. With our labors and burdens, we come to rest in him, to learn from him, to share his life and be refreshed. 

He is the Bread of the Strong, so that in our time we can be strong.

Modern historians, looking at Moses, ask did he really exist? When did he live and what are the facts of his life?

The 4th century writer, Gregory of Nyssa, in his classic work “The Life of Moses”, asks a different question: How can we see our own journey to God in him?

In the 120 years of his life Moses was on a journey to God. . He shows us how God draws us to himself in our life’s journey.  

Exodus 2,1-15 brings us to his birth and first 40 years. His Jewish mother puts him in the Nile river in a little boat ( the word for boat in Exodus is the same word used in Genesis for Noah’s ark). Those years are not without danger, but Moses–like all of us – is placed on the river of life, with a mission from God and God’s protection.

Moses’ adoption by Pharoah’s daughter brought him the wealth of Egypt. He makes his way to God with human gifts as well as divine gifts, and so do we. We’re blessed with gifts,  human and divine, and we must use them.

Moses’ first forty years end with the killing of the Egyptian and his subsequent flight to the mountainous desert of Midian. There, Moses meets God alone in the burning bush and choses to stand with God.

If we want to see the face of God, we’re called to face the burning mystery of God and choose to stand with him.

Then, at eighty years, Moses begins the next stage of his life: leading his people through the desert to the promised land. Eighty years old– hardly a good time for something like that, isn’t it? 

For Gregory, though, Moses’ life is an inward journey, not so much of events, as a journey of desire, and the journey of desire is a constant journey–an ascent– that never ends or grows old in this life. It’s not ended by sickness or the cessation of our active lives and responsibilities.  Here’s how Gregory describes it:

“…the great Moses, becomes ever greater, he never stops his ascent, never sets a limit to his upward course. Once setting his foot on the ladder that God sets up (as Jacob says) he continually climbed to the step above and never ceases to rise higher, because there was always a step higher than the one he attained…though lifted up through his lofty experiences, he’s still unsatisfied in his desire for more. He still thirsts for what seems beyond his capacity… asking God to appear to him, not according to his capacity, but according to God’s true being.

“Such an experience seems to me to belong to the soul who loves the beautiful. Hope always draws the soul from the beauty that’s seen to what ‘s beyond; it always kindles the desire for what’s hidden from what’s now known. Boldly requesting to go up the mountain of desires the soul asks to enjoy Beauty, not in mirrors, or reflections, but face to face. “ (Gregory of Nyssa)

“Old men ought to be explorers

Here or there does not matter

We must be still and still moving

Into another intensity

For a further union, a deeper communion

Through the dark cold and the empty desolation,

The wave cry, the wind cry, the vast waters

Of the petrel and the porpoise. In my end is my beginning.” T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets

The 11th and 12th chapters of Matthew’s gospel which we’re reading this 15th week of the year describe a growing opposition to Jesus after he begins his ministry in Galilee. It’s a dark section of the gospel. 

The Pharisees now take “counsel against him to put him to death” and begin to oppose him. (Matthew 12.14) They’re not satisfied with his teachings and his miracles and demand a sign. They’re joined by the Herodians, agents of Herod Antipas, ruler in Galilee. The political establishment joins the opposition. 

Jesus is also opposed  by “this generation” of Israelites, the towns “where most of his mighty deeds had been done,” Corazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum. (Matthew 11,16-19) The towns that first welcomed him enthusiastically now dismiss him.

Finally,  another group, who may surprise us, appear to oppose him – his family from Nazareth.  (Matthew 12,47-50) All together, this opposition must have affected Jesus, as he faced  the fickleness of humanity and even those closest to him. 

But it also must have affected his disciples as well, who joined him expecting to see God’s kingdom come. I think they’re among those whom Jesus prays for in the gospel read today and tomorrow: 

“I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike.
Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”

His first disciples were not wise or learned, they were more like children excited by what they saw Jesus do and say. They were struck by the miracles he worked and the wisdom he taught in parables. Yet, they would have been affected by the growing rejection to him.   

Are we like them in a time like ours, when he in the church he founded meets so much rejection? The Lord prays for us too, little children not wise or clever.