The Twenty-ninth
Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)
Dear
brothers and sisters,
Nine
hundred and fifty years ago this past Friday, King Harold II Godwinson and
William, then Duke of Normandy, campaigned against each other at the Battle of
Hastings. Having recalled the strategies employed in this pivotal conflict, I
find myself rather intrigued by the military tactics employed by Moses against
King Amalek. Whereas the two claimants to the English crown made use of
volleys, charges, and even a feigned retreat in the battle that saw the end of
Saxon rule over Britain, Moses, after sending Joshua to the front line, went up
a mountain, sat on a rock, and extended his hands in prayer (cf. Exodus 17:8-13).
It is a curious battle strategy, to be sure, yet it was successful one. Why?
Before
exploring this approach of Moses, we might do well to explore the names of the
persons involved in this battle. The ancient Romans had something of a proverb
that said, Nomen est omen, the name
is a sign. Sometimes it proved true, and sometimes not. According to the rabbis,
the name “Amalek” means the “people who lick blood.”[1] Because the Lord God said
to the sons of Israel, “No person among you shall eat blood” because “the life
of the flesh is in the blood,” this was akin to calling Amalek and his people
grave sinners and evil doers (Leviticus 17:12, 11). When Moses then, whose name
means “drawn from the water,” engaged Amalek he battle, Moses battled against
sin (cf. Exodus 2:10). Aaron, whose name means “mountain of strength,” and Hur,
whose name means “fire,” assisted Moses in this fight.[2] As Moses prayed with the
aid of Aaron and Hur, Joshua, whose name in Hebrew is the same as our English
Jesus and whose name names “the Lord saves,” was victorious over sin (cf. Matthew1:21).
Here,
then, we have a case where nomen est omen
is true, where names are indeed signs. However, before we seek to understand
what is signified for us in these names and in this battle tactic, we have to
remember a key principle to the reading of Sacred Scripture; we have to
remember that, as Saint Augustine said, “The New Testament lies hidden in the
Old, and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New.”[3]
The
early Christian Tertullian pondered what light the New Testament could shine
upon this Old Testament battle. He saw in the action of Moses a foreshadowing
of Christ on the Cross. He asked:
But, to come now to
Moses, why, I wonder, did he merely at the time when Joshua was battling
against Amalek, pray sitting with hands expanded, when, in circumstances so
critical, he ought rather, surely, to have commended his prayer by knees bent,
and hands beating his breast, and a face prostrate to the ground; except it was
there, where the name of the Lord Jesus was the theme of speech – destined as
he was to enter the lists one day singly against the devil – the figure of the
cross was also necessary, through which Jesus was to win the victory?[4]
Saint
Justin Martyr agreed with this interpretation and said, “In truth it was not
because Moses prayed that his people were victorious, but because, while the
name of Jesus was at the battle front, Moses formed the signed of the cross.”[5]
If
we, then, wish to be victorious in our battles with temptation and sin, if we
wish to trample Satan and his legions, then we, too, must fight with the sign
of the Cross and the name of Jesus. This is why the Sign of the Cross “is a
formula not to be spoken lightly.”[6]
But
there is something more, for as Moses engaged in battle with the name of Jesus
before him, he needed the support of Aaron and Hur to form the sign of the
Cross with his body. “For that reason the people conquered when they performed
works not carelessly but with full consideration and virtue – not with
faltering souls nor with a wavering disposition but with the stability of a
firm mind.”[7]
Is this not why Jesus spoke to the people “about the necessity for them to pray
always without becoming weary” (Luke 18:1)? Is this not why Saint Paul says, “remain
faithful to what you have learned and believed” (II Timothy 3:14)?
As
we collected our prayers together at the beginning of this Holy Mass and
presented them to the Father, we asked of God two particular graces. We prayed first
that we might always conform our will to God’s, and, second, that we might serve
his majesty in sincerity of heart (cf. Collect).
We do not often give enough attention to the prayers at the beginning of Mass,
but they contain a trove of spiritual insight.
If
we wish to truly conform our will to God’s and recognize his lordship over our
lives, if we wish to live in sincerity of heart as we serve the King of heaven
and earth, then we should frequently remember the Cross, the sign of the Lord’s
love for us and of his victory over sin and death. The sign of the Cross is, on
the one hand, a most simple gesture and, on the other, a most profound
statement of faith. To often do we enter the church, dip our fingers in holy
water, and make some hurried gesture as if swatting away flies, not recognizing
the great power that is in the sign we should make.
When
we enter the doors of the church, we pass, as it were, from earth to heaven and
doing so we become aware of our sins. We make the sign of the Cross to place
ourselves at the service of the Lord Jesus Christ and to remind us of his grace
and mercy. Indeed,
by signing ourselves with the Cross, we place ourselves
under the protection of the Cross, [we] hold it in front of us like a shield
that will guard us in all the distress of daily life and give us the courage to
go on. We accept it as a signpost that we must follow… The Cross shows us the
road of life – the imitation of Christ.[8]
It
is on the Cross that we see the fullest sign of Jesus’ loving obedience to the
Father, and for this reason the Cross shows us how to conform our will to the
Father’s and how to serve his majesty in sincerity of heart.
The
faithful have been signing themselves with the Cross for nearly two millennia now.
We treasure the sign of the Cross because it calls to mind the essential
elements of the Christian faith. Indeed, the first mention we have in writing of
the sign of the Cross comes from Tertullian, who died in 220. “At every step,” he said, “when going in and out, when
putting on clothes and shoes, when washing ourselves, when kindling the lights,
when going to sleep, sitting down, and in every action we place the sign of the
cross on our foreheads.”[9]
We would do well to do the same, and to do so with attentive reverence and love,
fully conscious of the sign we make, without being ashamed of doing so or
afraid of being seen to do so in public.
On the day of our baptism, the
priest or deacon, together with our parents and godparents, traced the sign of
the Cross on our foreheads. As the minister did so, he “claim[ed us] for Christ
our Savior by the sign of his Cross.”[10]
The sign of the Cross is, then, a sign of ownership; it is the sign that marks
us out as belonging to Christ and to no other. The Bishop, likewise, traced the
sign of the Cross on our forehead with the sacred Chrism when he sealed us with
the seven-fold gift of the Holy Spirit. We, too, make the sign of the Cross on
our foreheads – and on our lips and over our heart - at every Mass when we
prepare to hear the words of the Gospel so that we might keep the Lord Jesus in
our mind, on our lips, and in our heart.
Like Moses, we, too, have been drawn
from the water, from the water of Baptism, and so we, too, are called to fight against
temptation and sin, relying on the strength that Jesus gives and on the fire of
the Holy Spirit, keeping the Cross always upon us. If we entrust ourselves to
its power by keeping the Lord in our mind, we can learn to conform our will to
his; if we keep the name of Lord on our lips, we can serve his majesty; and if
we keep the Lord in our hearts, we can live in sincerity of heart, living in
the truth of love.
If
we intentionally devote ourselves to staying within the shadow of the Cross and
to lifting it high, the Lord will turn his eyes toward us, he will rescue us
from eternal death, and bring us into the glory of his presence. There, we
shall gaze upon the wondrous beauty of his Face and know the joy of his
merciful love forever (cf. Psalm 32:18-19). Amen!
[1] Cf. David
Patterson, A Genealogy
of Evil: Anti-Semitism from Nazism to Islamic Jihad, Cambridge
University Press, 2011, pp.43,244.
[2] Cf. Pope Saint Gregory the Great, Dialogue with Trypho, 97. In Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture,
Old Testament Vol. III: Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Joseph T.
Lienhard, ed. (Downers Grove, Illinois: Inter Varsity Press, 2001), 92.
[3] Saint Augustine of Hippo, Quaest. In Hept., 2.73. In Catechism of the Catholic Church, 129.
[4] Tertullian, Answer to the Jews, 10.10. In Ancient
Christian Commentary on Scripture, Old Testament Vol. III, 92.
[5] Saint Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, 90. In ibid.
[6] Thomas Howard, If Your Mind Wanders at Mass (Steubenville,
Ohio: Franciscan University Press, 1995), 53.
[7] Saint Ambrose of Milan, Letter 7 (37).33. In Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture,
Old Testament Vol. III, 92.
[8] Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, The
Spirit of the Liturgy, trans. John Saward (San Francisco, California:
Ignatius Press, 2000), 177-178.
[9] Tertullian, in Klemens Richter, The
Meaning of the Sacramental Symbols: Answers to Today’s Questions, trans.
Linda M. Maloney, (Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1990), 132.
[10] Rite of Baptism for Children, 41.
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