Sacrament: “Thou hast given them bread from heaven, containing in itself all sweetness.”
The water flowing from the rock is (according to 1 Cor. 10, 24) a type of the stream of divine grace, which, proceeding from our Saviour who was pierced for us, flows down on the languishing souls of men (compare what our Lord says about the living water, New Test XVI). “If any man thirst, let him come to Me and drink”, said our Divine Saviour (John 7, 37).
Moses praying On the mountain with outstretched arms is a type of our Lord, who was nailed with outstretched arms to the Cross on Calvary, and prayed for the salvation of the world.
The victory of God's chosen people over the heathen Amalekites is a type of the victory of the Church militant over her enemies — a victory won by the spiritual weapons of virtue and prayer.
Application. He who wishes to reach the promised land of heaven must suffer and deny himself. He must renounce his bad desires, and patiently bear trials for love of God. He must fight against the enemies of his soul, and all temptations to evil. We must fight, endure and suffer in this world, and we must do so from our youth upwards. Ask yourself, what you have done hitherto. Deny yourself voluntarily something in the way of food and drink. Do not complain, if anything hurts you, but rather suffer it in silence, and offer your pain to your crucified Saviour. Suppress at once all movements of anger, pride, envy, or sinful curiosity.
We must not only fight: we must also pray, to be enabled to overcome the enemy of our souls. Say to-day a prayer in honour of the Five Wounds of our Lord, or say a decade of the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary, to obtain the grace to overcome yourself.
Chapter XXXVI.
GOD GIVES THE TEN COMMANDMENTS ON MOUNT SINAI.
[Ex. 19—24.]
IN the third month[1] after their departure from Egypt, the Israelites came to Mount Sinai[2], where they rested and pitched their tents. Moses ascended the mountain, and God appeared to
- ↑ Third month. They had left Egypt on the fifteenth day of the first month; and now it was the third day of the third month, or forty-eight days since their departure.
- ↑ Mount Sinai (see Map). A distinction must be drawn between Sinai in its larger sense, and Sinai in its particular sense: for all the mountains in that part of Arabia are, in the wider sense, known as Sinai. In this chain there are two peaks; one is Horeb, and the other is known as Sinai in the more particular sense of the word (Fig. 25). It was in front of this latter mountain that the Israelites encamped. It is 7363 feet high, and rises perpendicularly from a large plateau to a height of 2000 feet. From this plateau the Israelites could see everything which took place on the mountain.
