Reading and meditation on the Word of God on Wednesday of the fifteenth week in ordinary time, July 16, 2025

Delivered by Randy from the Parish of Christ the King in the Archdiocese of Makassar, Indonesia. Exodus 3: 1-6.9-12; Rs psalm 103: 1-2.3-4.6-7; Matthew 11: 25-27.RECOGNIZING GOD The title for our meditation today is:Recognizing God. Joice, a child of grade one was just a month in the primaryschool. In religion class, the pupils were taught to pray "OurFather" and other common prayers. They were asked by the teacher to writethe formula of Our Father's prayer. But Joice only wrote the title of theprayer "Our Father", then underneath she drew the face of a man:rather thick and curly hair, mustache and thin beard. The teacher then questioned why Joicedrew that face. The pupil answered: “I memorize the prayer of “Our Father” andI can wirte it well, but I want something more. I want to see the face of Godthe Father. Because I don't know the face of God, I better put the face of myown father. He is such a good father like God the Father”. Joice represents us the believers whowant to recognize God in a real way. But just like her, we actually havedifficulty to detemine what exactly His face. No human can do this, but JesusChrist who is the Son of God does it for us. Jesus' face is so familiar to us.Recognizing Him, seeing His face and meeting Him, is the same as experiencingGod the Father. In particular way, today we meet theLord God himself who introduces Himself to us. Moses recognized God when thevoice came from above that was heard so convincingly: I am the God of yourancestors; God of Abraham, God of Isaac and God of Jacob. Moses recognized thisGod when he needed God to protect him from the threat of the king of Egypt. Godthen proved His help as the liberator of the Israelites in Egypt. Jesus introduces God to us in Himself.Jesus himself knows God the Father and what God the Father is like. We can onlyfind it in Jesus Christ who is speaking and meeting us. In His prayers to theFather, Jesus asks that all kindness and mercies be given to the simple, smalland suffering ones. The arrogant, proud and selfish ones find it hard torecognize God. We normally learn to recognize Godvery seriously when any difficulty and threat come to our lives and wedesperately need God’s help. We also recognize God when we desperately need Hispower to free us from all forms of oppression and persecution. We alsorecognize God in our situation of sickness, simplicity and humility when God isthere to strengthen us. Let's pray. In the name of theFather ... O God Almighty, strengthen us with Your blessings, so that we canrecognize You without obstacles in all our life situations. Our Father who art inheaven... In the name of the Father ...