St Stan Illustrated Story

ian Fathers and Brothers with their Superior General, Fr. Jan Mikolaj Rokosz. I greet the pilgrims who have come here from various parts of the world, some of whom have travelled great distances. Lastly, I greet those who are spiritually united with us in this sublime liturgy through television and radio, and I am thinking especially of the eld- erly, the sick, and those in prison. The Word of God that we hear in today’s liturgy for the 24 th Sun- day of Ordinary Time presents us with the mystery of sinful man and God’s response of supreme and infinite mercy. “The Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do to his peo- ple” (Ex 32:14). In the first reading, which we heard a moment ago, Moses, after making a Covenant with God, ascends Mount Sinai to receive the tablets of the Covenant and remains there to converse with the Lord for forty days. The Israelites grow tired of waiting for him, and they turn their backs upon God, forgetting the wonders He has worked to deliver them from slavery in Egypt. The scene which the sacred author describes is truly moving: when God reveals to Moses the Israelites’ sin and His intention to punish them, Moses becomes their advocate and ardently implores pardon for that ungrateful and sinful people. He does not ask God for justice, knowing well that Israel has committed the gravest of sins by yielding to the temptation of idol- atry, but instead he appeals to divine mercy and to the Covenant which God, on His own initiative, established with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God hears Moses’ prayer: patient and merciful, He abandons His plan to punish His people, who have turned their backs on Him. How many lessons we can learn from this passage from the Book of Exodus! It helps us to discover the true face of God; it helps us to un- derstand the mystery of His good and merciful heart. However great our sin, divine mercy is always greater, because God is Love. A wonderful testimony to this mystery is the human and spiritual experience of the Apostle Paul. In the second reading, from his first Letter to Timothy, he confesses that Christ has touched him in the depths of his spirit and has made him who was once a persecutor of Christians into an instrument of divine grace for the conversion of many. Jesus, the true good Shepherd, does not abandon His sheep, but wants to lead them all back to the Father’s flock. Dear brothers and sisters, is this not our experience too? When our sin leads us away from the right path and deprives us of the joy of God’s friendship, if we then repent and return to Him, we discover not the severity of his judgment and condemnation, but the gentleness of His love which re- news us within. 8