Devotional thought for our seemingly broken days:
18 All the people witnessed m the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain surrounded by smoke. When the people saw it n they trembled and stood at a distance. 19 “You speak to us, and we will listen,” they said to Moses, “but don’t let God speak to us, or we will die.”
20 Moses responded to the people, “Don’t be afraid, for God has come to test you, so that you will fear Him and will not sin.”  21 And the people remained standing at a distance as Moses approached the thick darkness where God was. Exodus 20:18-21 HCSB

213      When you have fallen or when you find yourself overwhelmed by the weight of your wretchedness, repeat with a firm hope: Lord, see how ill I am; Lord, you who died on the Cross for love of me, come and heal me. Be full of confidence, I insist. Keep on calling out to his most loving Heart. As he cured the lepers we read about in the Gospel, he will cure you.

Reading the reaction of the people God led to Mount Sinai, at first I am confused.  Why do they want to distance themselves from the God who had saved them from the Egyptians, the God they had cried out to save them?

Then I wonder if I am any different.  Or if the Church today is any different.

We are in awe of those who seem visibly in tune, intimate even, with God.  They are among those we sort of see as our heroes.  That is, until they invite us along on their journey.  The moment we hear them say that all they have done is possible for us as well, we treat them much as Israel treated God.

“We stand over here and watch as you approach God.  We’ll stand close enough to know some sort of safety, but far enough away that we aren’t overwhelmed by His grace.  We can be afraid of Him, but we don’t want to be close enough to fear Him, to be overwhelmed by His glory so much that we rever Him, that we adore Him.

Look at Moses words again, Don’t be afraid, for God has come to test you, so that you will fear Him and will not sin!”

We might read this and think the reason we will not sin is that of fearing punishment, of fearing His wrath, because we fear both the consequences now and for the future.  That isn’t the reason we won’t sin.  It is because of our fellowship with Him, and the trust that grows that impels us to call out to Him when the darkness of sin begins to cast its shadow over.   We might not like the phrase “intimacy with God”, but it is that very intimacy that gives us hope, that draws us deeper into a relationship with Him, and as we grow in our love for Him, as we trust and adore Him and revere Him, then we are changed, sanctified, set apart to Him.

To use St Josemaria’s words, we are cured. 

He has heard us.

He is here.

As He was for those in the desert, those He rescued to make for HImself a people.  The people He would love, and care for, those through whom His place to reconcile the world would come true.

So let us hear the advice the Apostle Paul gave in his letter to Hebrew Christians,

¹⁶  Let us have confidence, then, and approach God’s throne, where there is grace. There we will receive mercy and find grace to help us just when we need it. Hebrews 4:16 (TEV)
AMEN!

Escriva, Josemaria. The Forge (Kindle Locations 928-932). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.