My brothers and sisters, our readings this week reveal who God is, as well as how we should approach Him.  Let us open our hearts to learn from our readings to know and appreciate who God is in a deeper way.

In our 1st reading, as Moses was tending the sheep of his father-in-law, God reveals himself to him through a burning bush.  Moses sees a bush on fire, but notices it is not being consumed.  Understandably curious, Moses approaches the bush for a closer look.  As he approaches, he hears the voice of God calling him by name.  So first, we learn that God knows Moses by name, he has intimate knowledge of who Moses is.  Then God tells him to come no nearer but to take off his shoes for He is on holy ground.  This gives us some insight to how we should approach God.  The burning bush is extra-ordinary, no one, including Moses, has ever seen a bush on fire but not being consumed.  And so it should be approached differently, more special, than we approach anything else. God is extraordinary, and so we should not approach God with a casual attitude.  We should approach God in reverence for who He is, but to do so we must come to know who God is for ourselves.

God continues to reveal who He is to Moses, that he is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In order to fully appreciate the understand the meaning of this revelation, it is important for us to recall what it would have meant to Moses that God is the God of his fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Perhaps you’ll remember last week’s 1st reading described the covenant God made with Abram, promising that He would make of Abram a great nation with countless descendants.  God would be their God, if only Abram and his descendants would obey God and be His people.  Throughout Genesis we hear how God was faithful to Abraham and Abraham to God, and although it took longer than he knew or expected, we know that God did in deed make a great nation through the faithfulness of Isaac and Jacob.  So to Moses, the God of his forefathers was a God who was faithful and trustworthy.  Do you know God as faithful and trustworthy?

Although Moses knew God generally, He did not really know God personally.  Moses wanted to know who God is, and so he asks His name.  God answers, “I am who am”.  God is who is.  God is who is, who was, and who ever shall be.  God is existence itself.  Before all of creation came to be, there was God.  God is the author of life in every living thing.

But notice also, who God is, God is not just one who gives life and then distances himself from his creation, but God gives, cares for, and sustains life in his creation.  Our 1st reading tells us that God is compassionate and hears the cry of his great nation of people He has established.  God says, “I have witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt and have heard their cry of complaint against their slave drivers, so I know well what they are suffering”.  Then God makes known the all-important truth by saying, “therefore I have come down to rescue them”.
My brothers and sisters, God knows the suffering of his people, he knows each of us intimately, just as he knows Moses and all his people intimately.  He knows us, and he knows our suffering.  Some people look at their suffering and wonder where God is, why did he allow his people to suffer in the first place?  Some people wonder how a God who supposedly knows and loves his people could allow them to suffer so much.  Is that your response when you suffer or things don’t go your way? 

Our Gospel helps us to know how we should respond.  We are reminded that sometimes there is suffering that we are called to endure that is not a punishment for sin, in other words, sometimes bad things happen to good people.  On Thursday, I heard on Catholic radio, a couple of people call in and talk about the suffering and ridicule they had growing up.  However, these people on the radio went on to say how they recognized God’s presence through the difficulty, and how they learned that their worth and value as a person doesn’t come from other people but from God.  They continued to say how God used the bad of them being picked on to bring good out of it, they recalled how they are much more empathetic and compassionate to people now because of what God allowed them to endure as children.  God brings good out of bad, if we turn to Him and trust in His goodness and love. 

Jesus in our Gospel also reminds us that although it is true that all of our sins have punishment that we have to pay, God is calling us to repentance and forgiveness.  God is offering His love and mercy if we would only turn to Him in our weaknesses.  And it is through His love and mercy that we are able to endure the consequences of our sins, and should also, especially in this time of Lent, be willing to do some sort of act to make up for our sinfulness.  That is part of the reason we are called to more prayer, penance, and almsgiving in this season of Lent.  Repentance brings about the good and opens us up to the life God wants for us.        

Likewise, our 2nd reading gives us an example to learn from.  St. Paul recalls the faithfulness of God who heard the cry of his enslaved people Israel, how he saved them through the Red Sea, he fed them manna when they were hungry, and gave them water from a rock when they were thirsty.  Even though God heard their cry and provided for their desires, they still would not obey God’s commandments.  So in essence, the Israelites were just using God and his power to get what they wanted, but they were not willing to be his people.  My brothers and sisters, do you or I use God?  Do you ask and expect God to do things for you, but are you not willing to be His people- are you not willing to belong to Him or conform your life to His?  Are you willing to trust in God’s perfect desire for your life and fulfillment?  God is faithful and trustworthy, we can, and should, and in fact we are better off, if we trust our lives to His care. 

And so in summary my brothers and sisters, we learn in our readings today that not only is God the all-powerful, all-knowing, Creator of all life.  But that God cares for His creation, he cares for his people.  He knows us intimately, he knows our sufferings and all that we are going through.  But we also learn that God wants to be known, He reveals Himself and wants us to know Him intimately.  We learn that God is approachable, he desires us to come to Him and turn to Him, and give ourselves to Him, but we should not use Him or His generosity.  God is the all-knowing, all-powerful being, God is being and existence itself- but yet God is approachable.  However, it is important that we approach Him rightly, like Moses was instructed to take off his shoes and recognize He was on holy ground, so we are called to approach God with the utmost reverence.  And so I ask you, as you and I come to receive Holy Communion, as we come to receive the living God who desires to give His very life to us, let us not just use His goodness and generosity, but let us approach Him in reverence and humility.  God is faithful and trustworthy, and He desires us to give ourselves to Him, just as He is about to give Himself to us. 

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