Exodus 33:12-23 (New International Version)
Moses and the Glory of the LORD
12 Moses said to the LORD, “You have been telling me, ‘Lead these people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have found favor with me.’ 13 If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.”
14 The LORD replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
15 Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. 16 How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”
17 And the LORD said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.”
18 Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”
19 And the LORD said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”
21 Then the LORD said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. 22 When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.”
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Jn. 1, 18: “No one has at any time seen God. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has revealed him.”
My Comment: Jesus Christ is the rock, the corner-stone where the Father can be seen. At the moment of the Transfiguration – “As he was praying, the appearance of his countenance was altered” – Christ exercises his Sonship by prayer and becomes transfigured. Like is known by like. If we pray, we will see Him, and our countenance will be altered. Others will see the Father in us.
Escriva prayed, and heard the exegesis of Jn. 12, 32: “when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all things to myself.” This is the revelation of what Opus Dei is. Christ’s exegesis is: “not in the sense in which Scripture says this. I say it to you in the sense that you are to raise me in all human activities so that all over the world there be Christians with a personal and most free dedication, that they be other Christs.”[1]
It is fitting that the present prelate of Opus Dei was ordained to the priesthood on this day helping him to make the total gift of himself in affirming his sons and daughters such that they could live the unum ministerial priests activating the common priesthood of the laity.
[1] J. Coverdale, “Uncommon Faith,” Scepter (2002) 90.
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