Welcome to Slaking Thirst, a podcast that's all about bringing the thirst deep within our hearts for love and communion to the heart of Christ, a divine heart, who is seeking our love and communion in return. The hope is that the two thirsts would meet, and both thirsts would be slaked. Good morning. So, in this first reading we have from Exodus...
We're getting into the story of Moses. The story of Moses. And the story starts off very sweet and tender, right? The baby in the basket in the river. Goes down the river. Pharaoh's daughter pulls him out. And his name means one pulled from the reeds. Mojah in Hebrew, one pulled from the reeds.
Anyway, it starts off adorable, starts off cute, then all of a sudden Moses is murdering people. Like, what? What is happening, right? The little baby who's placed in the papyrus basket grows up to become this impetuous... This murderer, this stuttering, stammering murderer is who he is. And look, here's the thing. Because we know how this story goes, because of, you know, the...
Prince of Egypt and Charleston Heston's Ten Commandments. Because we know the story, we know how it goes, our minds are just filling in the blanks going, yeah, we know Moses, the burning bush, let my people go, ten plagues, you know, all the things. We know the story. He's the deliverer. It's like we're too familiar with it. We're too close to it. We're too familiar to notice the fact that God chose, that God is choosing a murderous, treacherous
crown prince to lead his own people to freedom. That's who he chose. This murderous, treacherous crown prince with a speech impediment to lead, to be his spokesman, to lead his people to freedom. It's as if the Lord just seems to prefer to work with the most unlikely candidates to be his vehicles of... grace. And as I was praying with that, as I was thinking with that, I heard the Lord say, yeah, exactly, Patrick, and that's why I picked you. I was like, wow. Okay, all right, Lord, yeah.
If I can work with Moses, I can work with you. It's really important for us to just reflect on that. It's really important. Like, your past, my past, our rap sheet of sin and shame and brokenness, it's like, get in line. The Lord can work with you. He can work with you. So here's what I really want to point out, though.
The kind of conversion. Jesus in the Gospel is talking about conversion. The conversion that Moses undergoes. We know, again, how the story starts. Impetuous, stammering, murderous Moses. turns into the incredible leader, let my people go, through the Red Sea, all of those things. Okay, so yesterday I pointed out how the Paschal Mystery...
is unfolding in sort of, we can see it in seminal form in the prophets and the patriarchs and the figures of the Old Testament, right? So too, I would say we can see this distinction. between what I'm going to call the way of Christ and the way of the world. We also see that unfolding in the Old Testament. The way of Christ, the path of Christ, is the path of the trusting Son.
who we see on the cross, who swallows everything, who conquers by being conquered, who wages war by letting war be waged upon him, who defeats the enemy by being supposedly defeated. right it's this bizarre way he swallows everything in one great act of mercy that's the way of christ that's the way of the trusting son and the other way the way of the world is the path of violent opposition the way of confrontation
Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. I think it was in Joseph Ratzinger's book, Introduction to Christianity. This is where the first place I saw this distinction played itself out. He pointed this out. He pointed out in the scene of Jesus' condemnation standing before Pilate, you have these two men, these two condemned men standing before Pilate, one who is a revolutionary, a violent man, a man named Barabbas.
And the other is, of course, Yeshua, Jesus, this man from Nazareth, who is the true son of the Father. Now, here's what's interesting. The way that you say son of in Hebrew is bar. B-A-R. And the way you say father in Hebrew is Abba. So what is Barabbas' name? It is quite literally the son of the father. And who's he standing next to? Jesus.
who is quite literally the son of the Father. You have, Ratzinger points out, these two Barabbases, these two Bar-Aba, these two ways. You've got the way of... The true Barabbas, Jesus, which is the way of nonviolence, the way of swallowing everything in mercy, and you've got the way of Barabbas, the way of confrontation, evil.
Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. You see this playing itself out in the Garden of Gethsemane. The soldiers come for Jesus. The soldiers come for Jesus. And what does Peter do? He takes the way of Barabbas. He unsheaths the sword. strikes the servant on his ear, cuts off his ear. What does Jesus say? No, put away the sword.
This way, the Barabbas way, is not the way. The way of Bar-Aba, the son of the father, is the way, Peter. I will show you the way. I will show you how we fight. I'm the true son of the father. Now Moses here. At the beginning of his story, he's thinking like Barabbas. Violence, confrontation, eye for an eye. He's striking the Egyptian, kills the Egyptians, buries him in the sand, hides his body.
But what happens to Moses by the end of it all? By the end of his story, he will have such trust in God, right? He'll have the heart of a son. I trust my father. I trust... my God, to say this to his people, right? His people who are frightened and staring at the Egyptian army, barreling down at them. Moses, converted, says, he answers the people, do not be afraid.
Stand your ground, stand firm, and you will see the deliverance of the Lord today. Then he says, the Egyptians that you see here, you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you. You need only to be still. That's a big difference from the man who struck and killed the Egyptian and buried him in the sand. That's the way of Barabbas, the way of the world.
This is the heart of Bar Abba. So here's the question. What about us? How do we think and live and respond? Do we think and live and respond with the mind of Barabbas? Confrontation. I'll take care of this myself. I'll bury it in the sand. Or do we think like sons and daughters of the Father, Bar Abba? Stand still. Let your Father fight for you. That's the invitation today. Amen. please check out slakingthirst.com and consider becoming a subscriber to the Slaking Thirst YouTube channel.