Monday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

“Moses and the Golden Calf”
Domenico Beccafumi, 1536-37

 
Readings for Monday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time [1]
 
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible [2]
 
Readings and Commentary: [3]
 
Reading 1: Exodus 32:15-24, 30-34
 
Moses turned and came down the mountain
with the two tablets of the commandments in his hands,
tablets that were written on both sides, front and back;
tablets that were made by God,
having inscriptions on them that were engraved by God himself.
Now, when Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting,
he said to Moses, “That sounds like a battle in the camp.”
But Moses answered, “It does not sound like cries of victory,
nor does it sound like cries of defeat;
the sounds that I hear are cries of revelry.”
As he drew near the camp, he saw the calf and the dancing.
With that, Moses’ wrath flared up, so that he threw the tablets down
and broke them on the base of the mountain.
Taking the calf they had made, he fused it in the fire
and then ground it down to powder,
which he scattered on the water and made the children of Israel drink.
 
Moses asked Aaron, “What did this people ever do to you
that you should lead them into so grave a sin?”
Aaron replied, “Let not my lord be angry.
You know well enough how prone the people are to evil.
They said to me, 'Make us a god to be our leader;
as for the man Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt,
we do not know what has happened to him.’
So I told them, 'Let anyone who has gold jewelry take it off.’
They gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and this calf came out.”
 
On the next day Moses said to the people,
“You have committed a grave sin.
I will go up to the LORD, then;
perhaps I may be able to make atonement for your sin.”
So Moses went back to the LORD and said,
“Ah, this people has indeed committed a grave sin
in making a god of gold for themselves!
If you would only forgive their sin!
If you will not, then strike me out of the book that you have written.”
The LORD answered, “Him only who has sinned against me
will I strike out of my book.
Now, go and lead the people to the place I have told you.
My angel will go before you.
When it is time for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin.”
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Commentary on Ex 32:15-24, 30-34
 
In this passage from Exodus, Moses has gone up Mt. Sinai and has been absent from the people for some time.  In their ignorance, the people are afraid that they have no leadership in the wilderness and ask Aaron to make for them an image of God. (Most scholars agree that the calf was intended to be an image of God rather than a false god.  Graven images of God were forbidden.) Moses smashing the tablets upon which the law had been engraved by the hand of God was a symbol that the covenant between the people and God had been broken through their sinful actions.
 
Moses' actions in destroying the idol and then having it ground to powder, put in water and drunk by the people creates an ordeal by which the innocent would be spared and the guilty would be punished (see also Numbers 5:11-28). Note also the weak argument Aaron provides.  In Exodus 32:4 he fashions the idol from gold, here he states he simply melted down the gold and the calf miraculously appeared.
 
God’s response to Moses' intercession is that those who committed the sin would be punished on the Day of Judgment. Moses offers his own life as an atonement saying: “If you will not, then strike me out of the book that you have written.” This statement presupposes God has a list of names, a book of life (see also Psalm 69:29) from which a name may be struck and that person shall die.
 
CCC: Ex 32 210; Ex 32:1-34:9 2577
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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 106:19-20, 21-22, 23
 
R. (1a) Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
 
Our fathers made a calf in Horeb
and adored a molten image;
They exchanged their glory
for the image of a grass-eating bullock.
R. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
 
They forgot the God who had saved them,
who had done great deeds in Egypt,
Wondrous deeds in the land of Ham,
terrible things at the Red Sea.
R. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
 
Then he spoke of exterminating them,
 but Moses, his chosen one,
Withstood him in the breach
to turn back his destructive wrath.
R. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
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Commentary on Ps 106:19-20, 21-22, 23
 
Psalm 106 is a national lament remembering the events from Exodus 32:7-14, where the Jews brought out of Egypt by Moses fell into idol worship, even as he received the law on Mt. Horeb. The psalmist reminds the people that Moses interceded and turned away God’s wrath.
 
CCC: Ps 106:23 2577
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Gospel: Matthew 13:31-35
 
Jesus proposed a parable to the crowds.
“The Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed
that a person took and sowed in a field.
It is the smallest of all the seeds,
yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants.
It becomes a large bush,
and the birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.”
 
He spoke to them another parable.
“The Kingdom of heaven is like yeast
that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour
until the whole batch was leavened.”
 
All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables.
He spoke to them only in parables,
to fulfill what had been said through the prophet:
 
I will open my mouth in parables,
I will announce what has lain hidden from the foundation of the world.
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Commentary on:  Mt 13:31-35
The Lord continues his descriptions of the kingdom of heaven using two parables. The parable of the mustard seed and the parable of the yeast have the same point. What appears to be small grows to miraculous size. What has been insignificant is vastly important; what cannot be seen is unknowingly immense. The parables of the mustard seed and yeast (see also Mark 4:30-32 and Luke 13:18-21) emphasize that from the smallest of beginnings with the proclamation of the word, the kingdom of God expands to encompass all peoples.
 
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Reflection:
 
We see the events that took place in the Exodus couched in the language of the Hebrew author who recorded them after they had been passed down orally from generation to generation for two thousand years. We marvel at the truth contained in God’s interaction with humankind.  The children of Israel had been led out of Egypt with great hopes and expectations by Moses (accompanied by Aaron and Miriam).  They had come to Horeb at the base of Mount Sinai footsore and hungry from their journey.  Things were not turning out as they had expected. They had anticipated a quick and easy journey to a land that flowed with milk and honey.  Instead, they find a harsh desert, hardship, and in this passage, Moses disappears up the mountain and is gone for a good deal of time.
 
In easier situations in the modern times, people would act the same way.  Deprived of leadership, a new leader would be selected or self-proposed.  Deprived of God, a new god would be selected as the object of adoration.  We see it time and again, those searching for God and failing to find him. In spite of all attempts to show them the kingdom of God, the face of Jesus, they pick the golden calf instead.  The calf may be represented by material wealth, or perhaps a passionate pursuit of a hedonistic lifestyle, completely self-engrossed.  Failing to find God or dissatisfied by what God stands for, they invent a personal god that ultimately is unsatisfying, hollow, and in the end denies them the love, comfort, and peace they are seeking.
 
We might ask how and why supposedly bright people can be seduced by the golden calf.  It does not take long to understand that those who give free reign to their desires for only their own pleasure can easily see and reject God, who tells us that only when all are comforted can we find comfort, only when no one is thirsty can our thirst be satisfied.  The golden calf represents the selfish and shallow side of human nature.  The standard-bearer is Satan, and its golden invitation is to eternal damnation.
 
It is always good to recall that ancient time when the Hebrew people, our predecessors in faith, fell prey to their basest impulses and turned to a false god.  We are reminded of the frailty of our own wills and cautioned to be on guard lest we begin to build our own version of the golden calf.  Our standard is the Cross.  We have the Lamb of God who calls us to holiness.
 
Pax
 

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[1] The picture is “Moses and the Golden Calf” Domenico Beccafumi, 1536-37.
[2] S.S. Commemoratio
[3] The readings are taken from the New American Bible, with the exception of the psalm and its response which were developed by the International Committee for English in Liturgy (ICEL). This republication is not authorized by USCCB and is for private use only.