FROM A CAMP TO A NATION - A: 11th Sun in OrdTime

First Reading: Exo 19:2-6 (June 18, 2023)

“From this you know that now, if you obey my voice and hold fast to my covenant, you of all the nations shall be my very own for all the earth is mine. I will count you a kingdom of priests, a consecrated nation” (Exo 19:6).

In our First Reading today, the Israelites were slowly presented as God’s own consecrated people. In the beginning, they were simply nomads who traveled in the desert after their liberation from Egypt. Particularly, “when they reached the wilderness of Sinai, there in the wilderness they pitched their camp; there facing the mountain Israel pitched camp” (v. 3). The Israelites, here, were campers, who were homeless at that point; they did not have any property nor land of their own. But Yahweh held them near him, telling Moses to instruct them to encamp in front of his sacred mountain.

This development informs that Yahweh had started to value dearly the Israelites out of their miserable conditions as slaves and a nobody.

Subsequently, they were even called a “house” after the Lord instructed Moses: “Say this to the House of Jacob, declare this to the sons of Israel, ‘You yourselves have seen what I did with the Egyptians, how I carried you on eagle’s wings and brought you to myself’” (vv. 3-4 ). This declaration elevated the status of the Israelites, turning them into a household and a family of God. They immediately became more than mere wanderers in the desert. This time, they began to possess an identity and a worth as one collectivity.

They inherited a name for themselves, i.e., “a house of Jacob” (v. 3), which was given to them by God himself.

Finally, Yahweh elevated the Israelites to a great people after declaring his emphatic promise, “if you obey my voice and hold fast to my covenant, you of all the nations shall be my very own for all the earth is mine. I will count you a kingdom of priests, a consecrated nation” (v. ). Accordingly, the Lord chose the Israelites to be his own people above all the rest of humanity. He even committed himself to rallying for them to be great and superior over all the other nations in the world.

They transformed, then, to be God’s consecrated nation, with whom he could be identified. The Messiah would soon hail from them, who would bring salvation to the whole world.

What happens here is that Yahweh elected from nowhere the Israelites, elevating them to be landed people, to be an ancestry with a definite name, and to be God’s own sacred people. If God can do this to the Israelites who were nameless as a people, this only means that God can do the same to any other people. Hence, we should always have confidence that God has the power to transform any miserable condition we may be experiencing right now. We simply should continue to have faith in Him despite the seeming impossibility of changing our situation. God is the God of Wonders; we should keep on believing that He can actually do wonders in our lives.

- Rex Fortes, CM