18th December - O Adonai
O Adonai, Lord 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.
We don’t often think of Moses as an Advent ‘figure,’ and yet here he is on this night, a week before the birth of Christ, and we are reminded by this night’s magnificat antiphon, that Moses’ first encounter with God was in the midst of fire.
And then we remember that every time he went up to meet the Lord, it was in blinding light, so that the people of Israel – when he returned to them – couldn’t even look at Moses’ face, it was so glorious.
Moses, the friend of God, who – though we are told that he spoke with the Lord as a man speaks to his friend – yet, when he asked for the grace to see Him, he was only allowed to see His back.
These are the last days of Advent, now, and we are praying in earnest to have our desire for the Lord strengthened and intensified ... to dare to have the desire for Him that Moses had; to dare to have such a transfiguring encounter with Him, that His splendour and glory touch us somehow, so that even we may reflect His light and radiance.
And tonight we address Him as Lord, and Ruler of the House of Israel; giver of the Law – and we beg Him to save us with His mighty power.
He seems quite fearful and awe-some ... and in fact is so.
Yet, how does the Lord lead us? In today’s reading at Mass, the prophet Jeremiah describes Him as the One who leads us back to ‘... live on [our] own soil.’ He leads us to where we belong.
And when the angel brought word to Joseph in a dream, that he not be afraid to take Mary to his home as his wife, we see the Lord again revealing His ‘mighty power’ to Joseph as leading him and guiding him to fulfil his destiny in freedom and in truth. To be who he is, knowing that ‘God-is-with-us’.
May the light of our Lord and Ruler, whom we desire and watch for in our prayer, enable us to see that our integrity and freedom are realised when we fix our gaze on His love and be – in Him – who we truly are.
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