Homily for Thursday, Week 4 of Lent

Homily for Thursday
4th Week of Lent

April 3, 2025
Ex 32: 7-14
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

Moses' prayer (William Blake)

“Moses implored the Lord” (Ex 32: 11).

The Scripture tells us the Israelites became depraved (32:7).  Feeling secure after their escape from Egypt, they made an idol and attributed their blessings to it.

We’ve seen countries become prosperous after long periods of depression—Ireland and Poland, for example—and then lose their traditional faith and religious practice and celebrate their freedom and economy as supreme goods.  It’s trending that way in most Western cultures, you’ve no doubt observed.

The Scripture tells us then that God’s wrath blazed against Israel (32:10).  Whereon “Moses implored the Lord.”  He became Israel’s intercessor, not for the 1st time nor the last.  I especially like how the responsorial psalm expresses it:  “Moses, his chosen one, withstood him in the breach to turn back his destructive wrath” (Ps 106:23).  Davy Crockett wasn’t able to hold the wall of the Alamo against the Mexican army, 

The Fall of the Alamo by Robert Jenkins Onderdonk depicts Davy Crockett
swinging his rifle at Mexican troops who have breached the south gate of the mission.

but Moses held back the wrath of God.

Brothers, believers have Moses’ role today:  to pray to God on behalf of today’s idolaters, the many who worship their unrestrained freedom, their prosperity, their political or military power; and to pray for the oppressed and the afflicted who have no recourse in this world but only God’s mercy.