4th Week of Lent
April
4, 2019
Ex
32: 7-14Nativity, Washington, D.C.
“Moses
implored the Lord, his God, saying, ‘Why, O Lord, should your wrath blaze up
against your own people…? Let your
blazing wrath die down; relent in punishing your people” (Ex 32: 11, 12).
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The Hebrews worshiping the golden calf
(Nicolas Poussin)
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We all know
the story of the golden calf and the sin of the recently liberated Hebrews who worshiped
it. We’re probably less familiar with
the rest of the story: how Moses
interceded for his people and turned away God’s justified anger. Moses prayed for them, mediated between them
and God. He did so selflessly, for God
had made him an enticing offer, the same one he’d made centuries earlier to
Abraham: “I will make of you a great
nation” (32:10).
This role of
intercessor between God and the people is a priestly role. Like Moses, priests pray to God on behalf of
men and women: bringing their sacrifices
to him, bringing him their praises, their pleas, their contrition—speaking to
him for them.
For
Christians that priestly role isn’t restricted only to the ordained—to deacons,
presbyters, and bishops. All the
baptized people of God are priests in a general but real sense. St. Paul, in fact, tells us all to offer to
God our bodies as spiritual sacrifices (Rom 12:1) that are different from the
animal sacrifices offered by the Jewish and pagan religions in his time. And we all have the role of intercessor,
asking God’s mercy and his favors, in Christ’s name, upon humanity or upon
specific persons, such as Mr. and Mrs. Tan, for whom we offer the Holy
Eucharist today and for our archbishop-elect, Wilton Gregory. That’s why we have intercessory prayers at
Mass. That’s why we ask each other to
pray for this person or that, for this intention or that—for the Church, for
civil society, for those with special needs, for our families, and so on.
So it’s not
only Moses who implores the Lord his God for pardon or for blessings, but all
of us.
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