Homily for the Third Sunday of Lent, Year C

Who Is God To You?

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Third Sunday of Lent, Year C

Church of St. Bridget of Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, March 23, 2025

In 2018, I ministered and attended to a dying man in a hospital. What makes this particular end of life care different and unique is how I met this man. I was going to visit another patient when I overheard two people— a man and woman arguing loudly in one of the hospital’s rooms. The door was not shut, and the curtain was slightly open. I walked into the room uninvited. As soon as the man saw me, he said, “Are you a doctor?” I said “no.” Then the wife interjected, “I think he is a priest. Can’t you see his collar?” In my conversation with them, I discovered they are married. The woman is a practicing Catholic. The man is a lax Lutheran and a retired medical doctor. To make the long story short, that intrusion ended up being exactly what the man and his wife needed. The last time I visited him, after being told by the medical team that he has just three weeks to live, I used that opportunity to venture into his most protected space— his heart. By heart, I mean his core. I remember asking him the question, “Who is God?” For about three to five minutes, he spoke in very arcane and highly philosophical terms just to answer the question. After that, I asked another question, “But who is God to you?” At that moment, he looked at me briefly and looked away. Again for about 3 minutes, he stared at the ceiling. His wife was crying. I also noticed that the man was tearing. I allowed him to sob and to wipe his ears. Then I asked him, “What’s the reason for your tears?” He replied, “Your second question was so personal. It is a question I have never considered in all my adult life. My wife said that God is a father, and if that is true, that makes me his son. And if that’s true, then I am a very bad son.” 

In today’s first reading (Exodus 3:1-8a, 13-15), we hear one of the most important texts in the entire Bible. It’s about God’s extraordinary movement into the space of Moses. Moses was born by Hebrew parents in Egypt, at a time when Pharaoh, a ruler in ancient Egypt, had ordered the death of all newborn Hebrew males. To save Moses, his mother hid him for three months, then placed him in a basket and set him to float on the River Nile, hoping that someone might find him and save him. In due time, Moses was found by the daughter of Pharaoh, who then raised him as his own son. So, Moses was raised among the Egyptian upper class. And like a lot of aristocrats, he was used to having things his way. On one fateful day, Moses saw an Egyptian maltreating one of his fellow Israelites. What does he do? He kills the Egyptian and buries him. Upon hearing that his crime had gone out, he fled Egypt to Midian. All of a sudden, Moses moves from grace to grass. He used to have things his way, he used to live a life of opulence and great comfort, but now he is in deep trouble. Like so many biblical figures, he has to go through a period of trial and testing. And the typical place for this is the desert, where he will go through a period of refining his personality. He has to confront his demons, which are anger and wrath. After a long period of trial, refinement of his attitudes, and management of his anger, the Lord appears to him. 

In our first reading, we hear that “an angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in fire flaming out of a bush.” But as Moses watches, he notices that even though the bush is on fire, it is not being consumed or burnt. That’s the God of the Bible! That’s the true and living God. Unlike the gods of the ancient Greeks and Romans, who when they broke into human affairs, destroyed things, killed or harmed people. Why? Because they were in a competitive relationship with this world. For them to assert themselves, something in this world had to give way. But that is not the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible is the Creator of all things. As massive as this world is, there is nothing in it that can compete with God. Everything in the world is given by God. For this reason, God is not one item in the world. If you look around the church, you can see the altar, the pews, the icons of the Blessed Mother, you can see me and I can see you. But what can we not see? The one who designed the church. The person is not here. So God, the Designer and Creator of the whole universe is not one item among the many items in the world. He is not competing with us. 

When Moses observes that although the bush was on fire but is not being consumed, he says to himself, “I must go over to look at this remarkable sight and see why the bush is not burned.” But as he draws closer, the Lord calls him, “Moses! Moses! Come no nearer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.” Now, don’t ignore what is happening here. Is God close to us? Absolutely yes! In the words of St. Augustine, God is “closer to me than I am to myself.” Catholics don’t believe in “deus absconditus,” God who is so detached, so far away and hiding somewhere. We don’t believe in God who created the universe and then went into retirement and doesn’t really know the world. The Creator did not just create billions of years ago and then retire. No! The Creator is still creating, still bringing things into being and still sustaining creation. God is One Thing Necessary. The entire universe and everything in it depends upon God for its existence. The true God is not a force or a principle. There is a force out there that can be used for good or evil. But the force does not know you or me. The force does not know my name. The true God knows the name of Moses, a man who cannot control his anger, and who is in the desert tending a flock of sheep. And God knows you better than you know yourself. Even Jesus says that every hair on your hair is numbered. That’s how intimately God knows us. 

But why did God order Moses to stop, to not draw nearer? Didn’t St. Augustine say that God is closer to us than we are to ourselves? It is to prevent Moses from being carried away and becoming too chummy with God. Although God is closer to us than we are to ourselves, God is totally “Other” and “Transcendent.” Why should Moses take off his sandals? He is in a desert, a place filled with sharp objects. What does wearing sandals or shoes do for us? They protect our feet. They enable us to go anywhere and to walk confidently. They give us a sense of being in charge. But when you take your shoes off, you become more vulnerable. By asking Moses to take off his sandals, God is telling him he is not in control here. You are on holy ground. The word “holy” in Hebrew is “kadosh,” which means “Other” “Different” “Transcendent.” It is true that God is intimate. He knows us better than we know ourselves. He is closer to us than we are to ourselves. But as St. Augustine says, “God is higher than anything I can possibly imagine.” The Creator of the universe is not an item in the universe. That which gives rise to every being in the universe is not himself a being among beings. The true God who appeared to Moses in the burning bush is both “closer to me than I am to myself” and greater than anything I can possibly imagine.” 

Speaking further to Moses, God said, “I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob… I have witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt and have heard their cry of complaint against their slave drivers, so I know well what they are suffering.” Amazing! Who is the least, the most forgettable people in the ancient Near East? The enslaved ancient Israelites. They are not some great empire or some great cultural force. They were enslaved nobodies. Yet, God knows them and has heard their cry. In addition, God says to Moses, “Therefore I have come down to rescue them from the hands of the Egyptians and lead them out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey.” After that, Moses says to God, “But when I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ if they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what am I to tell them?” Moses’ question is a credible one. There is a god of the river, the god of the mountain, the god of thunder, the god of fertility, the god of this people and that people. So, Moses is asking a very reasonable question: “What is your name?” Answering his question, we now hear the very line upon which the biblical revelation turns. God says, “I am who I am.” If someone asks me who I am, I can say, “I am Fr. Marcel. I am a Catholic priest. I am originally from Nigeria but now live in Minnesota. I am the pastor of St. Bridget of Minneapolis etc.” With those I am stating and defining the kind of being I am. But that’s what God won’t do and can’t do. To be God is to be. In God, essence (what God is) and existence (that God is) coincide, said St. Thomas Aquinas. To be God is not to be this or that, it is not to be here or there. God is everywhere in this church because nothing in this church or outside of it would exist apart from God. He is closer to me than I am to myself and he is also greater than anything I could ever imagine. The true God is that God whom we can never control or hide from. As sinners, we usually try to control God for our purposes or we try to avoid him. But the truth is that we never ever succeed. What should we do now? Just give up, and surrender to the God who is closer to you than you are to yourself and greater than anything you can possibly imagine. He wants to set you on fire with his divine love. He wants to make you more alive. For the glory of God is the human person fully alive, so said St. Irenaeus of Leon. 

And may this God bless you and give you his peace!