Our Personal Exodus

Homily for Wednesday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

Crossing over the River Jordan has long been a metaphor for death and our subsequent entry into heaven. In the Gospel of St. Luke, the evangelist makes a point of telling us that both Moses and Elijah stood next to Jesus atop Mount Horeb when he was transfigured before the apostles Peter, James, and John. “And behold, two men were conversing with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his exodus that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem.” This little detail in the Gospel of St. Luke does not appear in the other Gospels. It helps us to understand why Moses and Elijah were chosen to be with Jesus at this particular moment in his life. Jesus had told his apostles that he would be crucified and would die. Moses and Elijah frame his death in terms of the Exodus in the Hebrew Scriptures, both the Exodus from  Egypt and Elijah exodus at the end of his life. Our own deaths will also be a personal exodus as we make the transition from this life to the next. Just as Jesus prepared for his death, we too look to the day when we will die and find ourselves in the presence of God.

The Gospel for this day, a very familiar text for all of us, gives us a charter, a roadmap if you will, for our own preparation for that day. Doing penance has been described by many spiritual writers as a “dying to self.” Many of the great saints of the Church, in particular St. Francis of Assisi, practiced great penances. Through their example we learn that penance is not restricted to the 40 days before Easter. Indeed, the Franciscan movement of the 13^th century was a penitential movement.

We all know that one day we too will cross the Jordan River. Each time that we celebrate the Eucharist, we remember the death and resurrection of Jesus. One of the acclamations that we use after the consecration of the bread and wine of the Eucharist reminds us that we “proclaim” his death and “profess” our belief in the resurrection. It is yet another way for us to prepare for our death by remembering that Jesus has gone before us and has prepared a place for us in the Kingdom of God.