Wednesday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 391

I am the God of your father," he continued,

"the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.

The cry of the children of Israel has reached me,

and I have truly noted that the Egyptians are oppressing them.

Come, now!  I will send you to Pharaoh to lead my people,

the children of Israel, out of Egypt."

The seminarian crept into his classmate's bedroom and placed an incandescent chemical tube behind the small statue of the Virgin. An hour later, when the fellow saw a heavenly glow in his darkened room he immediately jumped out of bed and fell to his knees, thinking, "I hope I don't have to build a chapel on this spot!" The story would be told often throughout his priesthood.

Angels don't make social calls; divine visitations are not rewards for piety. On those rare occasions when Heaven appears on Earth, you know things are going to change. They will be challenging, frightening, difficult -- and for the better. We will discover, as if for the first time, the Lord remembers his people.

Today's first reading recalls that signal moment in human history when the Lord appeared to Moses and commissioned him to lead the Children of Abraham out of Egypt, the Pharaoh, his chariots and charioteers notwithstanding. Moses can entertain his doubts about God's power, if he chooses, but the Lord has decided and it will be done.

Many centuries later, Jesus, reflecting this tradition of confidence in God, prayed,

I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,

for although you have hidden these things

from the wise and the learned

you have revealed them to the childlike.

If Americans still favor the underdog it's partially due to our religious roots, God's people are not the rich and beautiful. Despite all appearances -- which are only skin deep -- God's favor rests upon the despised, the helpless, the marginalized -- the least among us. Those who would curry God's favor notice the divine preference and show deference to them. The Apostle James warns us in his second chapter:​

My brothers, show no partiality as you adhere to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. For if a man with gold rings on his fingers and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and a poor person in shabby clothes also comes in, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Sit here, please,” while you say to the poor one, “Stand there,” or “Sit at my feet,” have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil designs? Listen, my beloved brothers. Did not God choose those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him? But you dishonored the poor person. Are not the rich oppressing you? And do they themselves not haul you off to court?

This story of God's preference began with Cain and Abel and continued with the Resurrection of the Crucified. We pray that it will conclude when the Lord finds you and me preferring the company of pariahs, aliens, and the despised.