Thursday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
For those of us having reached the “golden years,” do you remember the very first episodes of the TV series “Mission Impossible?” Remember how the details of the mission were hidden on a cassette tape. Dramatically, the tape would then self-destruct in a puff of smoke! Such extreme challenges and such “high-tech” gadgets for the time!
Moses was faced with “mission impossible” when God told him to free the enslaved Children of Israel? No assignment in the Old Testament could match the scale of what Moses was asked to do. And yet Moses did not go empty handed. He had special tools to accomplish the task.
His first critical tool was knowing the name of the One who sent him. Entering a land familiar with powerful pagan gods and evil forces, he had the advantage in declaring “I AM sent me!” That title implied absolute power over every kind of being. His second tool was the power of God’s promise. No matter how many times Pharaoh refused to release the people, Moses knew something even more forceful was yet to come. God’s promise would be fulfilled.
What about us? The divine mission and personal commission are not over. In fact, they are carried forward in the words of Jesus addressed to us in today’s Gospel. When our mission seems impossible we lean into it and trust in the Lord Jesus. By the way, His name is “Emmanuel, God is with us.” What more do we need?
Reflection by Fr. Daniel Petsche, OSB
Posted in Articles for Ordinary Time, Daily Reflections