Instruments of mercy and truth

In today’s first reading (Exodus 32:7-14), it looks like God is going to destroy the people, but then Moses talks him out of it.

It should be no surprise therefore that Moses is described in today’s Gospel (John 5:31-47) as the one on whom the same people placed their hope.

But Moses, our Lord says in this Gospel, will be the one who will stand before God in accusation against the same people.

Of course, in all of these things, Moses is but an instrument of God himself.

In the first reading, God makes clear the consequences of the people’s sinfulness while God speaking through Moses makes clear the depth of God’s own mercy and compassion.

In the Gospel, Moses is thought to be a foundation for hope because he gives God’s truth to the people, but that same truth condemns the people when they do not follow it, most especially when they reject our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the greatest of all prophets, whose coming Moses foretold in Deuteronomy 18:15:

A prophet like me
will the LORD, your God, raise up for you
from among your own kinsmen;
to him you shall listen.

But they did not listen.

Indeed, so often we ourselves do not listen either.

We need to listen. We need to follow the truth that comes from God.

We also need to follow the example of Moses, for you and I in different ways are also called to be instruments of God’s mercy and God’s truth.

May we continually listen to the voice of the Lord and may we continually look for opportunities in which we can be instruments of God’s truth and instruments of God’s mercy for others.