We all encounter God in one way or another. Moses’ encounters with God were different from all others. He spoke to God face to face. Though Moses wasn’t aware of it, these encounters with God actually changed his physical appearance. We see in today’s first reading from Exodus 34 that the skin of his face became radiant whenever he would meet with God; so much so that it freaked the people out. They were afraid to come near him.
In the Gospel reading from Matthew 13, Jesus tells two short parables about what the Kingdom of heaven is like. In the first, a person finds a treasure buried in a field. In the second, a merchant finds a pearl of great price. In both cases, they go out and sell all that they have in order to attain that which will change their lives forever.
We know that the treasure and the pearl of great price are metaphors for Jesus. Keeping with the temporal aspect of the story, can you imagine the look on the faces of the men when they discovered their great treasure? One could assume that they would be radiant with joy! So it should be when we encounter Christ. Just like Moses, our faces should reflect the fact that God has changed us. The internal change should be reflected by our external appearance. So I wonder…are we radiating God today?
Father, you have filled us with your joy. Now help us to remind our faces what our hearts have experienced. Amen.
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