Let us stand on holy ground
On the third Sunday of Lent, March 24, 2019, the reading from Exodus narrates the encounter with God by Moses. This dialogue of encounter revealed the true nature of God and the destiny of human beings. The mission of every human being on earth is to love God and serve him. We can serve God […]
On the third Sunday of Lent, March 24, 2019, the reading from Exodus narrates the encounter with God by Moses. This dialogue of encounter revealed the true nature of God and the destiny of human beings. The mission of every human being on earth is to love God and serve him. We can serve God better and worship him through the love of neighbour and peaceful co-existence (Matthew 25:40). The destiny of every human being is to be happy with God in heaven. The context of God’s revelation to Moses was the suffering Israelites who settled in Egypt. Moses must have been told by his mother who was playing the role of a mistress that he did not belong to the royal family of Pharaoh. Moses must have grown to be aware of his real identity as a settler and not as an indigene. His heart must have been burning with passion to set his people free. This could explain why he killed the Egyptian to save the Israelite (Exodus 2:12). In the effort to reconciled two Israelites who were fighting with each other, he was rebuked by his own brother who rejected Moses intervention (Exodus 2:13). The suffering of the people must have been a burning fire in the heart of Moses. The burning bush could have been an outward sign of what was going on inside Moses. The difference was that the flames of the burning bush did not consume the vegetation whereas the flame of fire in the heart of Moses had already consumed a human being to death.
As Moses approached the burning bush, he heard a voice. “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God (Exodus 3:5-6). Moses could not look at God’s face because he had stained his hands with human blood. God who can use any human being as his agent of salvation gave Moses a mission to deliver the Israelites from bondage. Removing of shoes is a call to non-violence. Moses was only to use a rod. God did not give him a gun or any form of weapon for genocide. God who knows how to punish sinners does not need human beings to fight for him or to fight to defend him. God himself would drown the army of Pharaoh in the red sea when Pharaoh refused to obey God by giving the people freedom (Exodus 15). Removing shoes could also mean a call to “get rid of anger and vengeance before the presence of God who created you with the sand from the ground where you will return as a corpse.” Today God could be telling us not to enter his presence with anger and weapons of human destruction.
Moses demanded for the name of the God that was sending him to Pharaoh (Exodus 3). The question to each and every one of us today is “What is the name and meaning of your God? What does God mean to you? Is the God affirmed in Christianity, different from the God affirmed in Judaism, Islam and Traditional Religions? Is the concept of God the same for Catholics, Protestants, Evangelicals and Pentecostals? Is the Concept of God the same for all the sects in Islam? Saul thought that he was doing God’s work by persecuting and killing Christians until he got the correct concept of God by divine illumination on his way to Damascus to kill Christians. This divine illumination converted Saul to become Paul the apostle to the Gentiles (Acts 9). The founder of the Islamic Wahhabi sect, ‘Abd al-Wahhab, introduced the war cry of the Wahhabis: “Kill and strangle all infidels who give companions to Allah.” On the day of battle, he gave each soldier a letter addressed to the Treasurer of Paradise. It was enclosed in a bag which the warrior suspended from his neck. The soldier believed that by dying in battle he would go straight to Paradise, without being examined by the angels Munkar and Nakir. Many Iranian Wahabis still believe in this teaching.
Today, it is presumed that almost all religions believe in the existence of one God who created heaven, earth, human beings and all that exist. The same God is the God of life and judgment; the same God who created the heaven for all righteous people to behold his face on the last day. Though the oneness of God is affirmed by many people, the concept and how some people relate to God is quite different. The name: “God” has gone through a lot of evolution. Since he is a pure spirit, it took ages for the human mind to arrive at the concept of one God as we believe today. The book of Joshua reports that Yahweh the God of Israel says- this, “In ancient days your ancestors lived beyond the River such was Terah the father of Abraham and of Nahor and they served other gods” (Joshua 24:2). This is reference in the Holy Qur’an: “O my father! Why worship that which hears not and sees not, and can profit you nothing” (Suratul Maryam 41- 42).
The names of God in Hebrew underwent a development from polytheism to monotheism. The name originates from El, Elohim to Yahweh. El was known and adored outside Israel. As a common name, it designates the divinity in almost the whole Semitic world. El qualifies what God was in Israel. El Elyon was the God of Melchizedech King of Salem. This El was treated identically with the God of Abraham (Genesis 14:20). From El, the people of Israel arrived at Elohim, El Olam and El Shaddai meaning God almighty (Genesis 17:1). This was the God revealed to Abraham. Yahweh is the sacred name of God that was revealed to Moses in the burning bush: “I AM WHO I AM”. The people of Israel preferred to call God Lord, Adonai out of respect for the sacred name Yahweh. Before the call of the prophet Muhammad (SAW), the name of God in Arabic Allah came from the root Al ilah meaning “the God”. Allah was used to indicate the chief God of the Kabah before Prophet Muhammad’s time. Allah was also used for the Supreme Being. Other gods were also worshipped by the Arabs. The Holy Qu’ran mentions three goddesses, Al lat, Al Uzza, and Al Manat, representing the sun, the planet Venus and fortune.
God remains one despite our different concepts and different names. The will of God for all his creatures is that each person must bear fruit. This is the meaning of the parable of the fig tree (Luke 13:1-9). Human challenge does not condemn a person to be the worse sinner. God has a unique mission for each and every one of us. God desires a contrite spirit and conversion from sin to grace hence Saint Paul reminded his readers how our fathers were all guided by a cloud above them and how they all passed through the sea (1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12). For any nation to gain true freedom, the citizens must constantly reflect on the historical facts of where we are coming from, where we are now and where we hope to be. Nigeria needs national reconciliation. For the nation to move forward, there is need for intra-state reconciliation, intra and inter-political party reconciliation, intra and inter-religious reconciliation and above all we need to be reconciled interiorly by changing our values and orientation to life. We must remember that the ground we are standing is solid and holy. Let us remove our shoes for God to show us his face, mercy and compassion. Remaining in God’s presence with the intention to kill and displace innocent people for any reason will only make the sinner or criminal an eternal enemy of God and humanity. Let us go and bear the fruits that would take us to heaven on the last day. May God give us the grace to remain sanctified on this holy and solid ground where our God of justice reigns forever.
Rev. Fr. Cornelius Omonokhua is the Executive Secretary of Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) ([email protected])