LENT WITH MOSES

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MOSES: THREE TIMES FORTY YEARS

The gospel reading assigned as one of the readings for the First Sunday of Lent is Matthew's account of the temptations of Christ in the desert. Jesus spends forty days in the wilderness being tested by Satan, the tempter. Usually people see the connection between this episode and the forty years the Israelites spent wandering in the wilderness being tested (and failing the tests each time). Jesus is thus the "New Israel" who doesn't give in to the temptations of the devil.

Among the hundreds of ways of looking at this passage, I want to suggest one that is easily overlooked. It has to do with Moses. When the deacon Stephen is about to be martyred, he gives a long speech to the Sanhedrin, summarizing the story of salvation history (Acts Chapter 7). In this speech he summarizes the life of Moses, organizing it into three periods of forty years each:

I  The first phase includes his childhood, when he "was educated [in] all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in his words and deeds." Then, “When he was forty years old, he decided to visit his kinsfolk, the Israelites (v.23). This ends badly when he kills an Egyptian and has to flee for his life.

II   Moses flees when he hears that Pharaoh is hunting for him, "and settled as an alien in the land of

Moses defends Jethro's daughters (Ex 2:16)

Midian, where he became the father of two sons." We pay scant attention to this lost period in his life (the story of the entire first and second phases of Moses' life is told in 25 verses in Exodus 2:1-25), and focus, naturally, on the third phase, where all the action is.
At the end of the second period,“[f]orty years later, an angel appeared to him in the desert near Mount Sinai in the flame of a burning bush.(v.30)

III  We all know about the final period of forty years when, as Stephen puts it in his speech, "This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the desert for forty years (v.36)."


THE FORGOTTEN FORTY  

I'd like to share with you a reflection by John Power, S.M.A. in History of Salvation:

It is important for us to understand that Moses did not drop suddenly down from heaven, a dynamic and imposing figure, confound the pharaoh by a series of sensational miracles, and march proudly out the desert road at the head of an admiring throng. It is important for us to see that Moses was a man like other men, and that a long preparation was necessary before he was fit to undertake the mission God had destined for him. This early section [the second one above] of the life of Moses is passed over in silence in most books, and this is a pity. We know Moses better, and we see the workings of God's providence better, when we see the workings of God's providence better, when we realize that even a man of the gigantic stature of Moses needs to come to grips with himself and with God. Knowledge of himself  -- of his quick temper, of his fear -- drove Moses out of Egypt into the desert [to start the second phase of his life]; knowledge of God and of his love for Israel brought Moses back into Egypt to be the leader and liberator of his people (p. 44).

LENT WITH MOSES

So, what does all this have to do with Lent? There seem to me to be in this second period some useful suggestions for how to profit from Lent.  Fr. Power tells us that in this second forty-year period in the life of Moses, he first has to "come to grips with himself and with God." He does this little by little by coming to a "[k]nowledge of himself  -- of his quick temper, of his fear." These, you may remember, are the traits that caused him such trouble, causing him to flee Egypt and begin the second forty-year phase of his life. So, a first suggestion is that maybe I could look at the forty days of Lent as a time for me to come to grips with myself, to gain a better knowledge of who I am, to ask the Gentle Physician Jesus to reveal to me some of weaknesses and shortcomings that I'm not aware of or that I studiously try to avoid. Lenten practices such as holy reading and times of quiet reflection allow the Spirit a chance to speak to the depths of my heart.

Fr. Power then says that at the end of this period of struggles, "knowledge of God and of his love for Israel" brings Moses back to Egypt ready to do what God is asking of him. I might try to experience Lent as a special opportunity to get to know God more intimately. Being silent, refusing to join all the noise that our culture creates around me, will allow me (or better, will allow God) to cultivate that intimate relationship with the Divine for which I was created. 

The practice of silence, extra prayer and holy reading, fasting of various kinds, none of these Lenten practices are ends in themselves. But I can think of them rather as means to help me to spend the forty days of Lent doing what Moses did in those forty years in Midian, learning about himself and drawing closer to God.