1st Reading for the 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time

From: Exodus 19:1-6a

The Israelites Arrive in Sinai (Continuation)

[1] On the third new moon after the people of Israel had gone forth out of the land of Egypt, on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. [2] And when they set out from Rephidim and came into the wilderness of Sinai, they encamped in the wilderness; and there Israel encamped before the mountain.

God Promises a Covenant

[3] And Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him out of the mountain, saying, "Thus you shall, say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel: [4] You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. [5] Now therefore, if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my own possession among all peoples; for all the earth is mine, [6] and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation."
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Commentary:

19:1-24:18. These chapters deal with the central events of the hook of Exodus-- the encounter with the Lord, and the Covenant established between God and his people. They provide an excellent summary of the theological message of the Old Testament. On the one hand, there is God's revelation that in his plan for the salvation of men he has chosen a people from among all others and established a special relationship with it--the Covenant: "After the patriarchs, God formed Israel as his people by freeing them from slavery in Egypt. He established with them the covenant of Mount Sinai and, through Moses, gave them his law so that they would recognize him and serve him as the one living and true God, the provident Father and just judge, and so that they would look for the promised Savior" ("Catechism of the Catholic Church", 62). On the other hand, the events of Sinai clearly show Israel's destiny as the chosen people: "By this election, Israel is to be the sign of the future gathering of all nations" ("ibid.", 762). Thus, Israel is a figure of the new people of God, the Church.

This entire section has a degree of literary unity which binds together narratives and laws, all with much solemnity, because the sacred writer wants to emphasize that in the theophany at Sinai God offered Israel the Covenant and the Law. We could say the section breaks down as follows: a) prologue (chap. 1.9); b) legislative part, which includes the Ten Commandments (20:1-21) and the document of the Covenant (20:22-23:19); c) exhortatory appendix (23:20-33); d) the rite of the Covenant (24:1-18).

19:1-25. This chapter is written as part of a magnificent liturgy in which the events of Sinai are re-enacted for the reader. The sacred author, then, does not seek to provide an exact, scholarly report on what happened there; what he is providing, rather, is a theological interpretation of the real contact which took place between God and his people.

As in other important sections of this book, it draws on the great traditions of Israel but combines them so skillfully that they have become inseparable; only now and then can one identify traces of particular traditions. The text as it now stands is all of a piece. In this chapter there is a prologue (v. 9), summing up what follows, and the theophany proper (vv. 10-25).

19:1-2. This method of calculating time (v. 1) is one of the traces of the Priestly tradition, always keen to give dates a symbolic meaning (cf. 16:1 and 17:1). Three months is a very brief stage in the prolonged sojourn in the Sinai: in this way time becomes a sign of the religions importance of the events.

19:3-9. This passage summarizes the meaning of the Covenant that is going to be established. So, it contains the idea of "election", though it does not use the term, and the idea of "demands" being made by God. Furthermore, we can see here the new status of the people (it is God's own property) and the basis of its hope (in the sense that Israel attains its dignity as a people to the extent that it is faithful to the divine will).

All the basic teachings are contained herein: a) The basis of the Covenant is Israel's deliverance from bondage (this has already happened: v. 4): the people are the object of God's preferential love; God made them a people by bringing about that deliverance. b) If they keep the Covenant, they will become a very special kind of people. This offer will take effect the moment they take on their commitments, but Israel will develop towards its full maturity only to the extent that it listens to/obeys the will of God. c) What God is offering the people is specified in three complementary expressions--"My own possession", "holy nation", "kingdom of priests".

The first of these expressions means private property, personally acquired and carefully conserved. Of all the nations of the earth Israel is to be "God's property" because he has chosen it and he protects it with special care. This new status is something which will be stressed frequently (cf. Deut 7:6; 26:17-19; Ps 135:4; Mal 3:17).

By being God's possession Israel shares in his holiness, it is a "holy nation", that is, a people separated out from among the nations so as to keep a close relationship with God; in other passages we are told more--that this is the relationship of "a son of God" (cf. 4:22; Deut 14:1). This new way of being means that there is a moral demand on the members of the people to show by their lives what they are by God's election: "You shall be holy; for I the Lord your God am holy" (Lev 19:2).

And the expression "kingdom of priests" does not mean that they will be ruled by priests, or that the entire people will exercise the role of priest (which is in fact reserved to the tribe of Levi); rather, it reflects the fact that God gives Israel the privilege of being the only nation in his service. Israel alone has been chosen to be a "kingdom for the Lord", that is, to be the sphere where he dwells and is recognized as the only Sovereign. Israel's acknowledgment of God is shown by the service the entire people renders to the Lord.

This section (vv. 7-8) ends with Moses' proposal of God's plans to the people and their acceptance of these plans by the elders and by all the people: "All that the Lord has spoken we will do" (v. 8). The same wording will be used twice again in the ceremony to ratify the Covenant (cf. 24:3, 7).

In the New Testament (1 Pet 2:5; Rev 1:6; 5:9-10) what happened here will be picked up again with the very same words, applying it to the new situation of the Christian in the Church, the new people of God and the true Israel (cf. Gal 3:29): every Christian shares in Christ's priesthood through his incorporation into Christ and is "called to serve God by his activity in the world, because of the common priesthood of the faithful, which makes him share in some way in the priesthood of Christ. This priesthood--though essentially distinct from the ministerial priesthood -- gives him the capacity to take part in the worship of the Church and to help other men in their journey to God, with the witness of his word and his example, through his prayer and work of atonement: (St. J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 120).
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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.