20 July 2021 - Tuesday of the 16th week in Ordinary Time - Exodus 14:21—15:1

     We have been hearing the story of Moses in the book of Exodus these past two weeks.  Today, we are up to the Israelites crossing the Red Sea, a very vivid dramatic Bible story most of us probably member from our childhood.  The lesson all through the book of Exodus and in this story in particular is that God is with his people, constantly protecting them and leading them. Even when they seem to be in deep trouble, God is there with them. The Israelites sometimes can only see darkness and no light in the sufferings they have to endure. Howeer, the light of God with them, even if they fail to recognize that light.  

      Pope Leo XIII died on this day - July 20 - in the year 1903.  He served as pope from 1878 to 1903.  He is so well-known for so many things that I find it hard to believe that he is not yet canonized a saint in the Church.  He wrote the prayer of St Michael the Archangel that we pray at the end of Mass every weekend at St Jude, a prayer that was based on a vision that he had.  He was a great intellect who defended the Catholic Church against the modernist thinking.  He also is responsible for a revival of the Thomism, the philosophical method of St Thomas Aquinas.  He promoted the prayer devotion of the rosary to the faithful and also popularized the view of Mary’s role in the redemption of humanity.  

      Probably the thing I most remember about Leo XIII is the social justice encyclical Rerum Novarum, written in 1891. Coming in the midst of the industrial revolution, of workers moving from working the land to working in factories, of workers moving from rural areas to cities, this encyclical addressed the rights of workers, a fare wage, safe working conditions, and the formation of trade unions.  While he opposed both socialism and capitalism without limits, he affirmed the rights of property ownership and free enterprise. Rerum Novarum is considered a ground breaking document on Catholic Social Teaching, the document on which all other Church documents on Catholic Society Teaching follow.  

       As God was with the people of Israel as he led them through the desert to the promised land, God is with us through the saints and pope who lead his people.