God's Plan Overcomes All Human Obstacles

Homily for Tuesday of the 15th Week in Ordinary Time

Today’s reading from the Book of Exodus takes us from Moses’ infancy to adulthood in fifteen swift verses. We learn not only how God saves him from the decree of Pharaoh but also of his murdering an Egyptian taskmaster. He escapes to Midian.

We already know that Moses will be used by God to lead the children out of Egypt back to their home in Canaan which will become the nation of Israel, the name given to Jacob who moved to Egypt to escape the famine that gripped the world.

God has a plan that will bring about an end to the reign of sin that began in Adam. God’s plan manages to come to fruition in Jesus despite a famine, the decree of Pharaoh to murder the boys of the Israelites, a murder, and Moses’ subsequent flight to Egypt. We are just in the second book of the Hebrew Scriptures, and already we can see that nothing will stand in the way of God’s plan of salvation. God chooses Moses, a murderer and a man who is slow of speech and tongue to be the spokesperson before Pharaoh. Nothing will stand in opposition to God’s plan.

That plan was fulfilled in Jesus. Even the resistance of the people to heed Jesus will not stand in opposition to God’s plan. Today we hear a little bit about that resistance. In typical Jesus fashion, he chastises the children of Israel and insults them by comparing them to Sodom and Gomorrah and touting the faith of two Gentile villages, Tyre and Sidon. Here again, we know that Jesus will go down in a seeming defeat. However, God’s plan can even overcome the death of Jesus. Jesus rises from the dead and calls us to be his followers.

Each of us experiences obstacles from time to time. If God can work through the recalcitrant children of Israel, if God’s Word can be proclaimed by a man who is slow of speech and tongue, if God can rescue us even though evil men put the Son of God to death, we too can overcome our obstacles, which are nothing by comparison. We simply need to place our trust in God and follow Jesus. The Eucharist brings us the strength we need to persevere.

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator