Who am I, Lord?

The Old Testament readings this week show us that God has a plan for each of us and knows our strengths and weaknesses better than we do.

Ex 3:1-6, 9-12
Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. Leading the flock across the desert, he came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There an angel of the LORD appeared to him in fire flaming out of a bush.


As he looked on, he was surprised to see that the bush, though on fire, was not consumed. So Moses decided, "I must go over to look at this remarkable sight, and see why the bush is not burned."

When the LORD saw him coming over to look at it more closely, God called out to him from the bush, "Moses! Moses!" He answered, "Here I am. "God said, "Come no nearer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. I am the God of your father," he continued, "the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. The cry of the children of Israel has reached me, and I have truly noted that the Egyptians are oppressing them. Come, now! I will send you to Pharaoh to lead my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt."

But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and lead the children of Israel out of Egypt?"


He answered, "I will be with you; and this shall be your proof that it is I who have sent you: when you bring my people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this very mountain."



Mt 11:25-27
At that time Jesus exclaimed: "I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him."


We often look for assurances that we are doing the right thing, making the right decision, heading down the right path. It would be helpful if those assurances could be as obvious as the one Moses received from God in the first reading. It’s hard to miss a burning bush. What God was asking Moses to do was an enormous task so a shrub conflagration seems an appropriate signal.

Moses isn’t sure he’s up to the task: He asks God, “Who am I to do this?” I do that too. Sometimes when I know what the “right” thing is, peer pressure or habit can lead to the easier, sinful way. I have to do the right thing without seeing a "burning bush"—and I can, when I fight the temptation to do wrong and realize that, like Moses, God is with me. But when I fail in this endeavor, I also know that Jesus is still there, with His promise of forgiveness and mercy through the Sacrament of Reconciliation.


The Gospel is simple, yet powerful. It carries through the theme of how we each are chosen by God. You do not have to be the wise and learned – some things are revealed to the childlike. To me, that means that I can be chosen by God as a leader in my own life (leading others to faith), even as I continue to work on understanding and learning what that role should be and how I should live that life. My relationship with God evolves and changes as I evolve and change. I think if you go back and read my early entries, you’ll agree that just by reading the Scriptures every day and meditating on them and sharing them with others, my faith “perspective”, as well as the “strength” of my faith have matured, while in my heart I still feel child-like.


I doubt that God will produce a burning bush to get my attention. I still have to pay attention, to pray and to be open to what God has in store for me. Even if the path seems hard and little traveled, I have to remember that God is with me. And that’s not as hard as it sounds—For a long time, I had to “find time” to pray, but the more time I “found” the more time became available. The “trick” is to offer up the small things we do each day as prayers. The “prayers” that seem the most effective are the tasks I do that require some sort of sacrifice of convenience or desire to do something else. I still pray at daily Mass, and recite the rosary and the Divine Mercy every day, but I “supplement” these meditative prayers with the “sacrificial prayers”. Did this make sense to you? When I read it, it sounds right, but maybe a little confusing? I guess it’s hard to put this aspect of my prayer life into words. I hope you got the “drift”.





Yours in Christ