O Adonai, et Dux domus Israel, qui Moysi in igne flammae rubi apparuisti, et ei in Sina legem dedisti: veni ad redimendum nos in brachio extento.
O Adonai and leader of Israel, you appeared to Moses in a burning bush and you gave him the Law on Sinai. O come and save us with your mighty power.
Adonai means “God of the Covenant.” The defining moment of the people of Israel was their deliverance from bondage in Egypt which is commemorated at Passover every year. This process of deliverance began when God appeared to Moses in the burning bush. Moses was called and chosen by God to lead his people to freedom, and in that freedom to offer them a bond of love that would be unbroken in the Covenant on Sinai. The people, choosing to accept the Law and Covenant, become God’s chosen ones.
The action of Moses leading the people through the waters of the Red Sea and then giving the Law on Sinai are images of the ministry and life of Jesus. What was given in symbolic form is enfleshed in the Son who is to come to “save us with his mighty power.”
As Moses presented the Law on Sinai, so Jesus presents the new law on the Mount of the Beatitudes, speaking with love and tenderness to the poor, the gentle, the bereaved, the ones who seek justice, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, the persecuted.
We who bear his name need to ask him to come and save us with the mighty power of forming us in his own image, of cooperating with his gift of grace, by loving him as he loves us.
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With grateful thanks to OPChant – an initiative of two Dominican friars – Stefan Ansinger O.P. and Alexandre Frezzato O.P. Find OPChant on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.
