Wrap Up Talk For Exodus 30-32

It may seem to us that the liturgical details we read in these three Chapters of Exodus are boring and tedious. To the Hebrew people of that day and today, these passages, along with the genealogies (toledoths) in the Pentateuch are the most important of all the Scriptures. They form the foundations of and give legitimacy to Hebrew worship of God. As Catholics, we are heirs to a very long and rich liturgical tradition, which actually preceded Jesus’ earth shattering Passover at the Last Supper. Jesus did NOT invent a new liturgy, when He instituted the Holy Eucharist but rather was faithful to the Seder traditions of the Jewish Law. What He did do was to bring Jewish Law to its fulfillment by the sacrifice of Himself. To do this, He hearkened back to the time of Moses and the Exodus. It was during this period that the rudiments of worship were developed. Later, many of these traditions would be taken from desert to become institutionalized in the Temple at Jerusalem. Many of these traditions had very practical origins and then only later assumed a theological significance. Incense is a good case in point. Incense was readily available in the Middle East and widely used. Primarily, it was used as a perfume to mask the smell of large gatherings of unwashed bodies as well as the stench of the entrails of sacrificed animals. Eventually, the sight of the clouds of sweet smelling smoke came to symbolize prayer pleasing to God rising to the heavens. Catholic use of incense is well documented and finds its origins in the early days of the Church probably around the 4th Century. The common reference to it in Jewish Temple worship suggests an early familiarity with it by Christians. Liturgies of St. Mark and James refer to it’s use in the “Sacred Mysteries” around the fifth century. A Roman Ordo (book of the order of worship) of the seventh century mentions that incense was used by the bishop when processing to the altar on Good Friday. Almost all Eastern Liturgies bear witness to it’s use in the celebration of the Mass. In the present discipline of the Western Church, incense is used at solemn Mass. solemn blessings, processions, choral offices and funerals. When incense is used, it is generally burned. There are two cases, however, when it is not – does anybody know? (Answer next week!)
Incense was used frequently as well as basins and oil in Jewish Liturgies. In Catholic worship today basins are used, at Baptism, at Mass for the Lavabo (washing of the priests’ hands) and at the Washing of the Feet on Holy Thursday. Basins in Old Testament times were used to catch and conserve water, which was a precious resource, so that it could be used again. In Temple worship, the bronze basin was used for ritual washings following the sacrifices.
The use of earthly material such as water, oil and bread as symbols in liturgical worship is part of what we call the “Sacramental Principle”. The Sacramental Principle states that God uses things of the earth to symbolize his saving power in the Sacraments.
As with water, oil was a staple of life in the Middle East. Oil was widely used for cooking, particularly in the baking of bread. It was also used for medicinal purpose and for anointing. In the Jewish Dispensation, It was widely used in the anointing of priests and consecrated persons. In the Catholic Church, three Sacramental Oils (Oleo Sacra) are used: The Oil of the Catechumens (Baptism), the Oil of Chrism (Confirmation and Holy Orders) and the Oil of Unction (Anointing of Sick).
The Oil of Catechumens is usually pressed olive oil or palm oil, the Oil of Chrism is very aromatic because it contains a mixture of olive oil and balsam. The Oil of Unction is most frequently olive oil.
Despite the establishment of these liturgical signs and the origin of early Hebrew worship, many of the people continued to fall into Idolatry. In its origins in Jewish teaching, idolatry (Gr. eidololatria) denotes Divine worship given to an image. The natural extension of this as it came to be is Divine worship given to anyone or anything other than God. St. Thomas Aquinas, (whose Feast Day is tomorrow) treats it the same as superstition. (Summa Theo.II_II, qxciv). The most serious aspect of idolatry is that fact that it is in direct opposition to our primary object of worship, which must be God. Putting anything before God is the most serious of all sins and has its origins in Original Sin. Today, we find many things that society puts before worship of God – entertainment, sports, money, power and sex. The danger with this most grave of sins, then as now, is that it is insidious. It becomes so much a part of us that, if not confessed, will take over our personality. We “become the sin”.
The primary way to avoid serious sins like putting things before God, is Prayer and the Sacraments. Chapter 32 of Exodus, in Moses’ dialogue with God, we can see the doctrinal basis for Salvation – Covenant, Sin and Mercy. It is a cycle that will repeat itself in the national life of Israel many times – and in our own lives, today. God makes a covenant with us, we break it by sinning but after just punishment, God calls us back and extends his boundless Mercy. It is this Mercy which God extends to us every time, we receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The episode of the Golden Calf is one of the great teachings of Exodus because it points out two realities of the spiritual life. (1)That the pattern of Covenant, Sin and Mercy plays out to this very day. (2) A strong Interior Life is necessary for us to fight temptation. And as Moses teaches us -we cannot have a spiritual life without a dialogue with God in the inner recesses of our soul.