With that, the LORD said to Moses, "Go down at once to your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, for they have become depraved.
They have soon turned aside from the way I pointed out to them, making for themselves a molten calf and worshiping it, sacrificing to it and crying out, 'This is your God, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt!'
I see how stiff-necked this people is," continued the LORD to Moses.
"Let me alone, then, that my wrath may blaze up against them to consume them. Then I will make of you a great nation."
But Moses implored the LORD, his God, saying, "Why, O LORD, should your wrath blaze up against your own people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with such great power and with so strong a hand?
Why should the Egyptians say, 'With evil intent he brought them out, that he might kill them in the mountains and exterminate them from the face of the earth'? Let your blazing wrath die down; relent in punishing your people.
Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, and how you swore to them by your own self, saying, 'I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky; and all this land that I promised, I will give your descendants as their perpetual heritage.'"
So the LORD relented in the punishment he had threatened to inflict on his people.
Psalms 106(105),19-20.21-22.23.
At Horeb they fashioned a calf, worshiped a metal statue.
They exchanged their glorious God for the image of a grass-eating bull.
They forgot the God who saved them, who did great deeds in Egypt,
Amazing deeds in the land of Ham, fearsome deeds at the Red Sea.
He would have decreed their destruction, had not Moses, the chosen leader, Withstood him in the breach to turn back his destroying anger.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 5,31-47.
If I testify on my own behalf, my testimony cannot be verified.
But there is another who testifies on my behalf, and I know that the testimony he gives on my behalf is true.
You sent emissaries to John, and he testified to the truth.
I do not accept testimony from a human being, but I say this so that you may be saved.
He was a burning and shining lamp, and for a while you were content to rejoice in his light.
But I have testimony greater than John's. The works that the Father gave me to accomplish, these works that I perform testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me.
Moreover, the Father who sent me has testified on my behalf. But you have never heard his voice nor seen his form,
and you do not have his word remaining in you, because you do not believe in the one whom he has sent.
You search the scriptures, because you think you have eternal life through them; even they testify on my behalf.
But you do not want to come to me to have life.
I do not accept human praise;
moreover, I know that you do not have the love of God in you.
I came in the name of my Father, but you do not accept me; yet if another comes in his own name, you will accept him.
How can you believe, when you accept praise from one another and do not seek the praise that comes from the only God?
Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father: the one who will accuse you is Moses, in whom you have placed your hope.
For if you had believed Moses, you would have believed me, because he wrote about me.
But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?"
TEMPTATIONS OF THE LENTEN DESERT
"They have soon turned aside from the way I pointed out to them, making for themselves a molten calf and worshiping it." –Exodus 32:8
During Lent we imitate Jesus as He was led by the Spirit into the desert (Lk 4:1). The desert is not only a physical place but a spiritual condition. We give alms to the degree that we don't have money to buy what we usually buy. We pray so often we deprive ourselves of our customary diversions. We fast so much we don't have the stimulation we usually have. We enter an emotional, psychological, and spiritual desert. We're hungry for pleasure, entertainment, and food.
We're also hungry for God. The devil will tempt us to give priority to our carnal desires. He will try to manipulate and bribe us with food, power, and pleasure (see Lk 4:3, 6-7). If we give in to these temptations, we will have given something priority over God. In effect, we will have made a golden calf in the desert and worshiped an idol (see Ex 32:8).
However, if we resist the temptation to leave the desert by our own power and find our own promised land, we will see our heavenly Father provide for us, His children. We will move into a new dimension of trust in our Father. In the Lenten desert, we will either be manipulated by sin or transformed by Abba.
Jacob of Sarug (c.449-521), monk and Bishop in Syria
Homily on Moses’ veil
“Moses face had become radiant while he conversed with the Lord. Aaron and the other Israelites saw (it)… and were afraid to come near him… When Moses had finished speaking with them, he would again put the veil over his face” (cf. Ex 34,29f.). The radiance lighting up Moses’ face was Christ shining within him; but he was hidden from the eyes of the Hebrews who did not see him… The Old Testament as a whole is shown to us veiled like Moses, the symbol of all prophecy. Underneath this veil, displayed by the lips of the prophets, Christ appears, a judge in majesty, seated on his throne of glory…
If Moses was veiled, what other prophet could have uncovered his face? All veiled their speech in imitation of him. They simultaneously heralded and veiled: they put forth their message and, at the same time, covered it over with a veil… Because Jesus shone out in their books, a veil hid him from their eyes: a veil that makes known to all the world how the words of Holy Scripture contain a hidden meaning…
Our Lord lifted this veil when he expounded the mysteries to the whole of creation. By his coming, the Son of God uncovered Moses’ face, the incomprehensible words that up to then had been veiled. The new covenant has come to interpret the old; now, at last, the world is able to grasp those words that nothing covers over any longer. The Lord, our Sun, has arisen over the world and illumined every living being; mysteries and enigmas are at last made clear. The veil that used to cover those books has been removed and the world beholds the Son of God with uncovered face.
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