THE PRESENCE OF GOD March 23, 2025

In today's first reading we heard the fascinating story of Moses and the burning bush. That episode was a real incursion of the supernatural into everyday life. An angel appeared to Moses in the shape of a flame of fire. Then he heard a mysterious voice, telling him to remove his shoes, for the place on which he stood was holy ground.

     The Almighty was giving Moses, and us, a telling lesson in reverence and piety. The presence of God, even when mediated through one of his angelic messengers, is something which should inspire awe and wonder in us, and yes, a holy fear.

     'Fear' - not in the sense of shock-horror, a fright, a moment of terror, but 'fear' in the sense of deepest reverence in the presence of something - Someone - beyond the world of our senses, beyond the thin veil of external appearances which separate the material cosmos from the spiritual universe.                 

                                                                                         ~ FR. PAUL DOBSON