Fr. Ben’s homily for Wednesday of the 15th Week in Ordinary Time Cycle I
Theme: THE VOCATION OF MOSES
By: Fr. Benedict Agbo
Homily for Wednesday July 14 2021
* Ex 3 : 1 – 12, Matt 11 : 25 – 27.
The vocation of Moses and indeed the vocation of every great man /woman of God is realized in the wilderness experience. This is because God’s ways are not our ways. And so, in order to tune into the wavelength of divine revelation most times, we need to come out of the hub of societal noise. Moses had a great mission. God had heard the cry of his people in Israel and as a covenant keeping God, Ps 103 : 17, he needed to fulfill his promise to their ancestors – Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. So, he chose Moses. But Moses had to be prepared for this great mission as the Messiah figure of the Old Testament. He was first sent into the wilderness, next shown the mystery of a burning fire that was not a consuming fire and then told to remove his sandals.
Lessons from Moses ;
1. To draw nearer to God if we really want to understand our vocation. Vocation is deeper than occupation and profession. Profession is what we have studied. Occupation is our source of livelihood. But Vocation is what God wants us to do for him. Moses had his own understanding of his mission and was already failing when God took over in his life.
2. To remove our sandals; Our ego, our past negative influences and our personal weaknesses must give way for our vocation to be fully realized. He started with the arrogance of a prince – an adopted son of Pharoah. He learnt Egyptian mysticism and martial arts. But all these ended up with him as a refugee in the wilderness of Midian. His condition as a shepherd refugee depleted his ego /self image and he asked : ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharoah?’ This question was necessary so that God can take over : ‘But I will be with you’ was God’s reply.
3. To trust God’s power of deliverance. Moses had to learn immediately that with God all things are possible ; with God fire can burn in our lives without consuming us – fire of barrenness, joblessness, oppression, financial crises, sicknesses, etc. According to Vima Dasan, ‘Moses spent the first 40 years of his life in the palace of Pharoah thinking he was somebody. He had to spend the next 40 years of his life in the wilderness of Midian realizing he was nobody. Then he spent the last 40 years of his life in the desert realizing what God can do with nobody’.
In today’s gospel, we simply learn that salvation cannot be merited. It is given to the humble (the little ones who realize their limitations and are receptive to God’s grace). We need to come to this level of revelation to begin seeing our life’s experiences with the eyes of faith. Unless God reveals Jesus to us we cannot know him. Unless Jesus reveals God to us we cannot understand his ways. Unless the ‘God factor’ overrides the ‘human factor’ in our lives, our vocation will not be realized.
May God bless you today!
FR BEN AGBO