by: Serge Buissé
Opening Prayer
Heavenly Father, through your Son Jesus and in the Holy Spirit, we ask that you strengthen us, restore us and inspire us with your love. Lord, fill us with your peace, so that as we journey onwards we would pour out your love and grace to others. Ask this in your most Holy name. Amen.
Reading— Exodus 32: 7-14
The Lord said to Moses, “Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely; they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” The Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation.” But Moses implored the Lord his God, and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’” And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.
Reflection
“I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are”. Are we not stiff-necked people at times? Do we not deserve God’s anger and fury as is revealed in the reading of Exodus? Sadly, we know that if we do choose to reject God that the Lord cannot force us to turn back to Him. We are all on the journey of life and must come to discover where we are headed and for what reason. God is pursuing us and is doing all He can (while respecting our freedom) to gently and compassionately bring us back into full communion with Him. We may be surprised therefore at God’s anger and desire to destroy His people in the book of Exodus, but in all reality, this reading is about God inviting Moses to intercede for the people. God tells Moses at the beginning, “Go down at once”! This is so that he may help his fellow people to turn away from their evil ways. However, Moses begins to respond in prayer to God’s command by immediately interceding for them and asking God to have mercy. Now, is Jesus not also someone who has “come down” (from heaven) to help save humanity (God’s people) from their evil ways and sin? Jesus is able to save humanity precisely because He entered into intercessory prayer as He was being crucified on the cross, offering His passion and death as an acceptable sacrifice to the Father. May we not take for granted the power of intercessory prayer in our lives and may we continue to trust in God’s great love, which will go to great depths to save us.
Meditation
When was the last time you prayed an intercessory prayer (whereby you prayed to God on the behalf that God may help and or guide others)?
Do you recognize the needs and struggles of those around you (family, friends, neighbours, community, society, your parish, the Church, etc.)?
Do you believe that God listens to you and that your prayer is cherished in His sight? Do your best to unite yourself daily in prayer with the Lord and to trust in His love for you and others.
Closing Prayer
Dear God, recognizing in today’s reading that Moses’s intercessory prayer for your people found favour in your sight, may we too have that same confidence as Moses, so that we may continually offer up prayers for those whom you place in our heart, trusting that you desire them and that your grace and love will impact the lives of those we entrust to you. We ask this through Christ, the Lord. Amen.
CSE Lenten Retreat 