An Exodus of Liberation

By Julián Carrón - Discovering freedom through a transformative journey. Unveiling God’s Promise through the Son’s victory over death.

The opening of the Exodus text is striking: "I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt." The way God addresses His people can only be understood because it appeals to the experience of the people themselves. This appeal to experience is crucial for understanding the significance of anything we hear. Therefore, God never separates the statement "I am the Lord, your God" from the historical event in which they experienced this: "I brought you out of the land of Egypt." God's words would sound empty without this inseparable link between words and actions. We see how empty words feel when someone tells us, "I love you," without actions to prove the truth of those words. They seem empty and unreliable, leaving us skeptical. To avoid this, God always begins His relationship with humanity by acting first, such as the exodus from Egypt, so that His words have meaning to the listener, making them fully compelling and trustworthy. This is how He makes Himself known. Hence, the initial act of the exodus from Egypt was so revealing of Him that it defined the "God of Israel" as the "God who brought you out of the land of Egypt." God can't be separated from His actions. When a child calls out "mom," the word encompasses the entire history of their relationship.

This way of acting is critical not just at the beginning but at every moment. Thus, the beginning, this original event, this unique initiative, can never become "past." The beginning is "the source from which we can never stray" (Balthasar) for understanding. This is particularly relevant for understanding the significance of the resulting commandments. "I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt" is the premise for the meaning of the commandments. Only by keeping this event in mind can we understand their significance; otherwise, they become just a list of tasks that often seem incomprehensible and impractical.

However, for those overwhelmed with emotion by the liberation from Egypt, what could be more reasonable than to follow God's commandment: "You shall have no other gods before me"? Because "our freedom is inseparable from having been freed" (Balthasar). That event is the continual source of freedom, satisfying the desire for fulfillment that frees us from everything else. From there, the reason and energy to observe the commandments arise: "You shall not bow down to them [other gods] nor serve them."

"You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God […] You shall not murder, commit adultery, or steal. You shall not covet your neighbor's house, his wife, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."

How can we live by these commandments with our weaknesses? It's only because God fills our lives with such fullness, to the point of overwhelming emotion, that we can be so free and fulfilled that we have no need to covet our neighbor's house, wife‌ or possessions to the extent of stealing or committing adultery. To remind us of this origin, God uses a tool: the Sabbath rest, which is the practice God invented to educate us always to remember that event, always to live that event as something present.

Yet, humans struggle to maintain this original stance, continuously falling away, clinging to mere fragments to fill the void left when God no longer fills it. The Gospel shows how true this is: "In the temple courts, he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves, he said, 'Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!' His disciples remembered that it is written: 'Zeal for your house will consume me.'"

The temple, the house of God, built for the holy purpose of remembering this event and always honoring the memory of that God who showed such passion for His people, had degenerated into a marketplace, or even worse, a "den of robbers" as the prophet Jeremiah puts it. What remained of that event of liberation? Due to this decay, the Old Testament documents in many passages the prophets' constant yearning for a purification of the temple in Messianic times, a sign that those times would come. The expulsion of the merchants from the temple is the realization of that longed-for purification. Jesus' action aimed to restore the true meaning of the temple as a place of memory, of worship to God, ensuring that event isn't just past, hence "Zeal for your house" that will consume Jesus.

Yet, this is still not understood, and his action provokes opposition from the Jews, who were the first to experience God's initiative with His people, confirming how far they had already drifted from the origin of their story. The beginning had become so much a thing of the past that they couldn't understand Jesus' initiative. And so, they challenged him: "What sign can you show us for doing these things?" Jesus answers with a sign they don't understand: "Destroy this temple, and in three days, I will raise it up." But they couldn't grasp such a challenging response, beyond their ability to understand, as indicated by their reply: "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you will raise it in three days?"

"But he was speaking about the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken." The true temple would only be revealed with Christ's resurrection. This event would demonstrate what the true purification of the temple was, showing the place where we can truly reach God. Not a temple built by us, but the temple created by God, that is the body of Jesus. Only this new temple will ensure that the beginning doesn't turn into the past. The risen Christ will always be present among us.

However, while waiting for this fulfillment, the signs in the present sparked the freedom of those who saw them, and some believed: "While he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name." But Jesus considered this adherence unreliable. Indeed, the Gospel continues: "But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person."

This drama that Jesus introduces into history, provoking the reason and freedom of man, will continue throughout human history, as shown by Saint Paul in the second reading. For some, this manner of God's action is a scandal; for others foolishness. "Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles." Only "those who are called, both Jews and Greeks," will understand that "Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God."
Only those who are called, who have been graced to partake in the event of Christ and who are bold enough to verify God's method, will see in their experience — as Saint Paul did — that Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. And that "the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength." Dear brothers and sisters, only Christ, "the power of God," is the fulfillment of that liberation that began in Egypt. Only He can liberate us forever. This is the liberation to which each of us is called and for which we live this Lenten season.
Unrevised notes and translation by the author. Milan, 03.03.2024