1st Reading for Sunday, Solemnity: The Most Holy Trinity

From: Exodus 34:4b-6, 8-9

The Covenant is Renewed

[4] He (Moses) rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and took in his hand two tables of stone. [5] And the LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.

God Appears

[6] The LORD passed before him, and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithful- ness." [8] And Moses made haste to bow his his head toward the earth, and worshiped. [9] And he said, "If now I have found favor in thy sight, 0 Lord, let the Lord, I pray thee, go in the midst of us, although it is a stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thy inheritance."
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Commentary:

34:1-28. This chapter narrating the renewal of the Covenant follows the same pat- tern as the account of its original establishment (cf. Ex 19-24); but it is shorter, concentrating on the two main protagonists, God and Moses. Thus, it begins with the preparations for the theophany and for the encounter with the Lord (vv. 1-5); then follows the revelation of God, and Moses' prayer (vv. 6-9); and it ends with the renewal of the Covenant and the so-called Rite of the Covenant (vv. 10-28). The account hinges on the remaking of the tables of stone after the sin of the golden calf; the tables symbolize God's offer to keep to the pact and never to go back on it.

34:1-5. The theophany is described very soberly here, but it has exactly the same elements as given in chapter 19: very careful preparation by Moses (v. 2; cf 19:10-11); the people forbidden to approach the mountain (v. 3; of. 19:12-13); God appearing wrapped in the cloud (v. 5; of. 19:16-20).

Comparing the two accounts, this one says less about the transcendence of God and puts more stress on his closeness to Moses: "he stood with him there" (v. 5). God's initiative in drawing close to man is clear to see; it lies at the very basis of the Covenant.

"He proclaimed the name of the Lord" (v. 6); the context would suggest that it is Moses who proclaims the name of the Lord, but the Hebrew could indeed be as the RSV has it, "and he proclaimed his name, 'Lord' ". The same wording appears in v. 6 implying that it is the Lord who is "proclaiming", defining himself as he promised he would (cf. 33:19). The sacred writer may have intentionally left these words open to either interpretation; whether spoken by Moses or said directly by God, they are equal from the revelation point of view.

34:6-7. In response to Moses' pleading, the Lord makes himself manifest. The solemn repetition of the name of Yahweh (Lord) emphasizes that the Lord is introducing himself liturgically to the assembled Israelites. In the description of himself which follows (and which is repeated elsewhere, cf. 20:5-6; Num 14:18; Deut 5:9-18; etc.), two key attributes of God are underlined--justice and mercy. God cannot let sin go unpunished, nor does he; the prophets, too, will teach that sin is, first and foremost, something personal (cf. Jer 31:29; Ezek 18:2ff). But this ancient text refers only in a general way to the fact that God is just, and puts more stress on his mercy. A person who is conscious of his own sin has access to God only if he is sure that God can and will forgive him. "The concept of 'mercy' in the Old Testament," John Paul II comments, "has a long and rich history. We have to refer back to it in order that the mercy revealed by Christ may shine forth more clearly. [...] Sin too constitutes man's misery. The people of the Old Covenant experienced this misery from the time of the Exodus, when they set up the golden calf. The Lord himself triumphed over this act of breaking the covenant when he solemnly declared to Moses that he was a 'God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness' (Ex 34:6). It is in this central revelation that the chosen people, and each of its members, will find, every time that they have sinned, the strength and the motive for turning to the Lord to remind him of what he had exactly revealed about himself and to beseech his forgiveness" ("Dives In Misericordia", 4). On "God's jealousy", see the note on 20:5-6.

34:8-9. Moses once more implores the Lord on behalf of his people; he makes three requests, which sum up many earlier petitions: he begs God to stay with the people and protect them in their hazardous journeying in the desert (cf. 33:15-17), to forgive the very grave sin they have committed (cf. 32:11-14), and finally to make them his own property, thereby distinguishing them from all other peoples (cf. 33:16) and restoring them to their status as "his own possession" (cf. 19:5). These three requests are ones that were constantly on the lips of the people of Israel and in the hearts of everyone who acknowledges God (cf. Ps 86:1-15; 103:8-10; etc.).
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Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland. Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.