Exodus and the Reconquest

This is a computer-generated transcription that has been included to make the homily searchable.  It has not been verified by the author. 

“These things happen to them as an example, and they have been written down as a warning to us upon whom the end of the ages has come.” St Paul is speaking about the events of the Exodus, and even though they happened so long ago, he’s saying that they are given as an example, even says as a warning for us today, so they have relevance today. And he says upon whom the end of the ages has come. So let’s look a little bit at this example. The example we have the in the first reading of Moses, which is the at the beginning of this great exodus. So remember, Moses had been a very important person in Egypt. But then when he was about 40 years old, he had to flee, and so now it’s been 40 more years that he’s living in the desert, in exile. So now he’s 80 years old, and it probably much was not going on. He was in the middle of nowhere. He was far away from the center of power, where important things happened. Egypt was the great empire, and he was, he had been right at the center of power, and now he was a nobody in nowhere. And so it seems like he’s just going to die, simply a shepherd in the wilderness. He doesn’t even have his own flock at 80 years old, he’s just taking care of someone else’s flock. So how’s that for a career path? You start out as the in the center of Egypt, such an important person. And now you’re at 80 years old. What do you have to show for it? And so it’s just a normal day. He’s out taking care of the flock all by himself. He thinks he’s just alone with his sheep on this very remote mountain, Mount Horeb, which is another name for Mount Sinai. And then suddenly he sees that mysterious, strange thing happening, a bush just burning, but which is not being consumed. And so he wants to come close to it. You know, so in the desert, there’s not that much going on. And so when there’s any little strange thing, you want to check it out. And then when he begins approaching the bush, it says, “When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see it, God called to him out of the bush.” So that’s interesting. God is calling, not calling from heaven, but out of the bush. It’s kind of funny. Doesn’t that seem kind of funny that God would be calling, not from the top of the mountain, or from heaven, but out of the bush. God called him out of the bush, “Moses. Moses.” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Do not come near. Take off your shoes from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” So Moses, again, he’s just out in the middle of the desert. It doesn’t look like it’s a different place than any other place. He’s probably been there before, I don’t know. And suddenly God is speaking to him from this burning bush and telling him that he’s on holy ground. Take off your shoes. This is this place which looked ordinary, is holy and extremely holy, because God is there. Last week we were talking about, we had the mystery of the Transfiguration, and there was Abraham’s experience, and we talked about theophanies, theophanies, which means manifestations of God. And so this is another great example. In fact, this is the beginning of what’s going to be a whole series of theophanies in the Exodus. And so we see this ordinary place which God reveals and has made holy and mysterious and transcendent. God, by His manifestation, is making it holy. And so this is God’s action. It’s not man’s decision. It wasn’t that some committee, some Synod, decided that they were going to have this as their holy place. It was God himself making that decision. And so this ordinary place becomes a special place. It becomes a place of great potential, of great spiritual, even divine potential, because it becomes a place for encountering God. Of course, we can encounter God any place, but there are some places that He makes special places for encountering Him. And that happened many 1000s of years ago, but we see throughout the history of the Church, that’s continued to happen. For instance, one which is, well, Our Lady of Guadalupe is manifestation at Tepeyac, made that, suddenly made that hill, that little hill, wasn’t a big hill, that little hill very important, where so many graces would flow from that.  Or a place like Lourdes, where just an ordinary little grotto, and there was one, there was one little muddy spot in the ground that our Blessed Mother told Bernadette to dig and even to drink from that muddy spot. And from that little muddy spot began to flow this miraculous fountain which has helped and healed so many. Or Fatima, another very ordinary place out in the country, which suddenly becomes a great spiritual center, a center of great power. Or today, many people are flocking to Medjugorje because another little village, an unimportant village, where suddenly, so many people are experiencing great conversions there. And those are just a few examples, but there’s many more. These are some of the greatest, but there’s many more, many which are smaller, but also sources of a lot of grace. Our soul, that is the depths of our soul, are always longing for God, and our world can often be like a barren desert of where it’s so hard to find them, and these become like oasis in that desert where God’s graces are flowing in a special way. And it’s not just a place that is transformed, but it’s above all, lives that are transformed. And even Moses, Moses, who had been living, probably it seems like a very ordinary life, and it’s not just this place, but he himself, who is transformed. He suddenly senses that his life, this suddenly something great, transcendent has touched it. God Himself has manifested His presence, and so he’s going to realize that there’s so much more to his own life than he realized. As I said, at 80 years old, he probably felt that his life was just going to wind down there. And suddenly it’s revealed to him that his life has much more, a much more greater mission than he realized. So something that had been hidden is now being revealed, and it’s overwhelming for him. And this has a lot of significance for us here at this mission, because the Lord has spoken to us of His special plans for just this very land where we are. When we were first searching for a place, sensing the Lord wanted us to have a place for Him. I would often speak of it, saying that we wanted, like to use a human example, like a landing pad, like a place which was where God could land, in a sense, a space for God. And when the Lord led us through a whole series of circumstances to this place, right away we consecrated it to our Lord’s Divine Mercy and to our Blessed Mother, Our Lady of Guadalupe. And it seems like already now it’s like a little, well also, all throughout the years. I mean, for many, many years, where people would come and tell us that they felt something special here, sometimes even just crossing, just entering into the property. We’ve heard many, many times, people saying that they felt a special presence of God, a special peace here, something special. And now it seems like it’s kind of like a little seed which is beginning to grow, and our Lord is then, you know, our Lord guided us to through the messages to prepare, clear that hillside, and you want us to call Tepeyac and build a little sanctuary, a little Teocali there, as a special place which is special for him. Then what does God say to him there? He says, “I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry because of their task masters. I know their sufferings.” So the people have been living under this heavy oppression, and they probably felt like, Where is God? We’re calling out to God, and we don’t, where is His answer? And today, we don’t have the same form of slavery, but there’s much more subtle, in a sense, much more dangerous forms of oppression today. I mean, just to take, I mean, there’s so many examples, but just to take some examples of how much, how much the media and the entertainment industry and the news media, how much all that has been used to basically oppress us, to manipulate and oppress us. I mean, just to take one example of COVID. What was the main message of everybody in the media during COVID? Be afraid. Be afraid. Be afraid. Be extremely afraid. Don’t go outside in the healthy air and sun. Don’t do that. Don’t have any contact with people. Stay isolated, stay isolated, and just be afraid. And just keep watching what we’re telling you, because we’ll make you more and more afraid. There was some danger in COVID, but it certainly wasn’t at all proportionate to what we were being told. And when you make people afraid, they’re much easier to manipulate. They’ll do all sorts of things. When you’re in a panic, you’ll do all sorts of things. And so many examples as we’re learning about all the corruption, unimaginable, trillions of dollars of corruption in our government, which is not just being used for bribery but being used against us. So paying taxes, which are much of it, is being used against our country and against the very persons who are paying. I mean that we could go on and on of the examples of the oppression that we’re experiencing today. And behind that, there’s behind this powerful network which is so oppressive. I mean, just again to take another example which is in the news about someone like Jeffrey Epstein and how connected he was to the powerful people. And so many of those powerful people are corrupted and blackmailed and controlled. And so much of our government has been used not for the benefit of the people, but to oppress people, to create wars which are causing so much damage, destroying so many lives, but which are enriching a few people. I mean, there’s a long list of ways that God’s people are being oppressed today. And unfortunately, even in the Church, even in the Church, when the Church meant people wanting to be fed with holy food, with holy teaching and Holy Sacraments. And so many times that the flock of God is being betrayed. And so this has a lot of relevance to our time and the suffering of the people. And so what does God say? He says, “I have come down.” So that’s a very striking phrase, “I have come down.” To do what? He says, “to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians.” He doesn’t just say, I’m going to give you instructions. He says, “I have come down and to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them out of the land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey.” He’s saying He is going to do it. And a little bit later, He says, “I promise I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt.” He says, He Himself will do it. Then he says, “I will stretch out My hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders I will do in it. After that, He will let you go.” I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt. So it’s talking about God Himself acting. And this reminds me of one of the messages the Lord gave us in the reconquest. Because that’s, that’s, you know, that that’s the whole charism, of the Mission of Divine Mercy – Faith, so that God can act.  And just to take one reconquest excerpt. This was from just January, where He says, “satan hates my Church because it is my reflection, and with unceasing attacks, he tries to destroy, divide, decimate and corrupt and drag her to the abyss where he dwells.” But then He says, “But I the head will not allow this,” that He is the head of the Church. He has a vicar on Earth, but He is the head of the Church. “I The head will purify her.” So notice what He’s saying is what He Himself will do. “I The head will free her from the claws of satan. I the head will expel all filth. I the head will bathe her once again in My blood and in the pure water that flows from My side.” So that reminds us of the whole manifestation of Divine Mercy. “And in My mother’s tears, and I will leave her radiant, clean, beautiful, full of Me, full of My truth, full of light.” So the great, His great action to renew the Church. And so that’s what He is saying, that He will do as He’s promising, telling us that He will act. But of course, He calls us to cooperate. So this great grace of the Exodus, I used to think that, wow, that’s fantastic, but that doesn’t happen hardly anymore. It’s so extremely rare. But the more and more my experience has been, it’s not nearly as rare as I used to think, and as most people think. God has given many graces, but there are obstacles to those graces. Sometimes it’s the person himself, sometimes the person himself, like we see Moses, he’s, resistant. It’s hard for him to be open to that. Sometimes, of course, also, you know, for instance, it would help if more of these were made known. But our media doesn’t really focus on these type of things, like say, again, our media, which is so much about fear, fear, fear. What does Jesus say over and over in the gospel and throughout all the Scripture, “do not be afraid.” And what is the news always tell you, fear, fear, fear. And the media doesn’t tell you beautiful things that God is doing today. So that would help if it did, because that would make people more aware. But I think the biggest obstacle is the pastors of the Church who place so many obstacles to this. And so we have this example of God choosing to act through Moses. It wasn’t some authority where it says Moses, you know, some human authority, some human commission, some human government, which said that it was God Himself who chose Moses, called him to be a prophet. God could have acted otherwise, but this is what He did. He wanted, God says He’s going to act, but He wants Moses to cooperate. And that’s very hard for Moses. Moses said to God, “but who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt? I can’t do that.” He’s even afraid that his own people, he’s been gone for 40 years. How is he going to explain this. “Hi, remember me 40 years ago?” Yeah, we look different, don’t we? Well, you’re not going to believe this, but you know, how’s it going? How’s it going to start that conversation with the people?  God wants to act and do what only He can do, but He also wants our cooperation. But like Moses, we can feel our unworthiness, our weakness, our ignorance. What does God want from us? What does He want from us today, in this great reconquest? He says, and this is from a message from last October, “These are the times of My action. The times of My action, what I need from My army.” So what do we need if He’s going to act, what does He want us to do? Because He says, My army, so He’s going to act, but He still wants His army acting. And what does He want from His army? He says, “Faith, abandonment, humility, that you listen to your God and let Him act.” That you listen to your God and let Him act, that is, don’t get in His way. At least don’t get in this way. That you listen to your God and let Him act first in yourselves, in your families and in your particular missions. “The rest I will do, children,” the rest I will do. We can’t do the biggest part. It’s completely beyond us, but there is a part that we can do, and that’s what He’s teaching us. He wants His army to cooperate with Him. And so to conclude, the Lord said, “I have seen the affliction of My people. I have heard their cry. I know their sufferings, and I have come down.” And in a few minutes in this Mass, on this altar, in this poor little chapel, God Himself, again, is going to come down in the Blessed Sacrament. God knows our suffering, and He wants to act in our time, but He calls for us this great trial, this great gift, this great sacrifice of faith and trust and hope. And so this Mass is an opportunity for us to renew our faith and our hope in Him, so that God can act, faith, so that God can act. And so in this Mass, let us renew that act of “Jesus, we trust in You.” Amen.

KEYWORDS / PHRASES:
1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12
Exodus 3:1-8, 13-15