Homily: 15th Week in Ordinary Time - Saturday - Exodus

Over the past week and through next week our first readings for daily mass are taken from the book of Exodus.  Where the first book of the bible, the book of genesis, gives us an account of creation and the fall, Exodus, the second book of the Bible begins with God’s people enslaved in Egypt.   This is story which forged the identity of the Jewish people more than any other, the event that they continue to look back to as the decisive moment in their history 3500 years later.

It is the story of how God freed a people.  The word exodus comes from two greek words, ex and hodos, meaning, the “way out”.  God leads His people out of slavery, and forms them to be “his people” through the establishment of covenants and the giving of the law—particularly the 10 commandments.

Especially during Lent and the Sacred Triduum Christians look to the book of exodus also as an allegory.  Christ, the new Moses, liberates His people, the Church, the new Israel, from the spiritual slavery of sin.  Every years, On the night of the Easter Vigil we read the story of the crossing of the Red Sea.  God leading the freed slaves through the waters symbolizes how we are led through the saving waters of baptism. 

The first reading today even speaks of a vigil where they recall their story.  “This was a night of vigil for the LORD, as he led them out of the land of Egypt; so on this same night all the children of Israel must keep a vigil for the LORD throughout their generations.”

Keeping a vigil and recalling their past was an important part of maintaining and strengthening their identity.  It is a way of keeping grounded, remembering where they came from, who saved them, and where they were supposed to be heading.  Remembering that they were once enslaved in Egypt, that salvation came from God, not from themselves, that they need to keep their eyes on Him and on the promised Land by following his commandments.

Christians do the same, don’t we?  Recalling daily the saving event of Jesus’ Paschal Mystery is an essential part of our Christian identity.  Recalling, we were enslaved in sin, that salvation came from Jesus, not ourselves, and that we must keep our eyes fixed on Him.

We get in trouble when we forget about our beginnings, when we think we were somehow owed salvation and that heaven is a guarantee.

If we don’t live ever-conscious of the Exodus, our liberation from slavery, we run the risk of being enslaved again.  It keeps us humble, it keeps us on the right path.

May we live always in grateful and humble remembrance of what God has done for us and to the great dignity to which he calls us for His glory and the salvation of souls.