NOT AS "MY PEOPLE," BUT AS "YOUR PEOPLE"
Jesus stands before the Father and says, "Why, O Lord, should Your wrath blaze up against these people whom I have saved in My own blood. These are My people, for I have redeemed them, and therefore they are Your people too."
In today's first reading from the book of Exodus, we witness an extraordinary scene. God is angry with the people because they had made a molten calf and worshipped it. When speaking to Moses, God then calls the Israelites not "My people," but "your people." How fortunate the people were to have Moses as their mediator before God because at his intercession God "relented in the punishment He had intended to inflict on His people" (Ex 32:14).
Someone even greater than Moses now serves as our mediator before our heavenly Father: the one about whom Moses wrote, Jesus Christ Himself. At the beginning of Lent, Jesus taught us how to pray, but more than that, He prayed for us and continues to pray for us and with us, individually and in the Mass. But we must humble ourselves before God and bring to Him our weaknesses as we do in the penitential rite of the Mass; however, we do not have to fear that God will reject our prayers privately or publicly. We do not pray or worship alone or by our own power. We do so in union with Jesus.
Jesus stands before the Father and says, "Why, O Lord, should Your wrath blaze up against these people whom I have saved in My own blood. These are My people, for I have redeemed them, and therefore they are Your people too." What we do each day of our lives has value in the eyes of our loving Father because He looks upon us and sees in us the Person of His Son, our mediator, and He says: "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased" (Mt 3:17). Wow! We are beloved sons and daughters of our God who loves us dearly; what a great gift!
During this reflection ponder on these words and how beautiful they are. At the Eucharist, are we conscious of our union with Jesus especially at the time of consecration, when Jesus renews His sacrifice, and at the time that the doxology is pronounced: "Through Him, with Him, in Him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is Yours, almighty Father, for ever and ever"?
How do we respond? Is it with a sincere and fervent "Amen"?