Monday, July 17, 2023

Monday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

(Exodus 1:8-14.22; Matthew 10:34-11:1

People have difficulty appreciating today’s first reading.  They often do not realize how oppressed are the Israelites in Egypt.  The “chosen people” have lived among the Egyptians for hundreds of years.  Working as laborers, they have not had leisure time to develop their culture.  Very likely, they have assimilated Egyptian customs to the extent of losing touch with the God of Abraham.  They see Pharaoh as a kind of God. Like primitive peoples they will attribute divine attributes to the sun.

But God has not forgotten the Israelites.  He is about to act so that they may attain a degree of holiness.  It will provide formation for His Son to become humanity’s liberator from sin and death.  Now God will call a preliminary leader for the Israelites, free them from slavery, and form them into a people “peculiarly His own.”  The road ahead is long and torturous.  But followed intentionally, it will lead the Israelites to partial freedom.

We are aware that slavery exists today.  Millions cannot escape their sexual overseers.  Many more have analogously enslaved themselves to pornography.  It is largely men who look at the rot.  But women now are allowing themselves to enter the industry which severely compromises their whole lives.  We must ask God’s help in overcoming this very real threat to human freedom.