powder or power?
"He saw the calf and the dancing. With that, Moses' wrath flared up, so that he threw the tablets down and broke them on the base of the mountain." —Exodus 32:19
The Israelites made a calf of gold and began to worship it. To bring the Israelites back to their senses, Moses ordered the Levites: " 'Go up and down the camp, from gate to gate, and slay your own kinsmen, your friends and neighbors!' The Levites carried out the command of Moses, and that day there fell about three thousand of the people" (Ex 32:27-28). Moses also took the calf, "fused it in the fire and then ground it down to powder, which he scattered on the water and made the Israelites drink" (Ex 32:20). Even these two extreme measures did not break through the Israelites' spiritual blindness. They continued for centuries to relapse into idolatry.
Well over a millennium after Moses, Jesus did not kill 3,000 idolators but hung on the cross for over three hours to atone for idolatry and all other sins. Instead of making us drink water laced with the powder from an idol, Jesus immersed us in the living waters of Baptism and gave us His blood to drink in the Eucharist. Jesus changed our human nature, broke through our spiritual blindness, and saved us from our sins. Jesus is the only name by which we can be saved (Acts 4:12).
Give your life totally to Jesus. Praise, love, and thank Jesus forever!
Prayer: Father, on this feast of the grandparents of Jesus, grace all grandparents to make any sacrifices necessary to help their families give their lives to Jesus.
Promise: "I will announce what has lain hidden since the creation of the world." —Mt 13:35
Praise: Jesus, the Grandson of Sts. Joachim and Anne, testified to the holiness of His grandparents, saying, "You can tell a tree by its fruit" (Mt 7:20).
Nihil Obstat: Reverend Robert L. Hagedorn, November 28, 1998
Imprimatur: †Most Reverend Carl K. Moeddel, Vicar General and Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, December 1, 1998