23 July 2015 - no such limit

Moses led the people out of the camp to meet God,
and they stationed themselves at the foot of the mountain.
Mount Sinai was all wrapped in smoke,
for the LORD came down upon it in fire. 

Let us go and meet the LORD. He wants to reveal himself to us. He calls us to the mountain of his presence because he wants to give us some sense of just how glorious he is. Yet the way he does it now is different from the way it was then. "For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest" (cf. Heb 12:18). We may sort of wish for special effects like that but the result at that time was fear. They created a barrier. It was thus far and no closer. "If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned" (cf. Heb. 12:20). There no such limit for us.

But blessed are your eyes, because they see,
and your ears, because they hear.
Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people
longed to see what you see but did not see it,
and to hear what you hear but did not hear it

Parables are a way Jesus allows us to know him more. They only make sense to the pure of heart. It is the pure of heart who are able to see God (cf. Mat. 5:8) and this is true in the parables specifically. The parables provide the offer of the presence of God while keeping it safe from the blasphemous abuse to which the gross of heart invariably subject it.

It isn't that Jesus is trying to keep himself a secret. Even though we read:

You shall indeed hear but not understand,
you shall indeed look but never see.
Gross is the heart of this people,
they will hardly hear with their ears,
they have closed their eyes,
lest they see with their eyes
and hear with their ears
and understand with their hearts and be converted
and I heal them.

This isn't what he wants for them. But Jesus cannot and will not fully reveal himself to hearts that don't want and desire him. It is dangerous for them because they cannot respond in a way that respects the holiness of God. The parables keep them safe from that. And the invitation to repent and be converted and healed always remains.

The LORD is "praiseworthy and exalted above all forever". He wants us to know it. Blessed are we because he gives us more than he gave even to Moses to help us know just how exalted he is.

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel (cf. Heb. 12:22-24).

This new Mount Zion is the Church which descends from heaven in an invisible way at each mass.

And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal (cf. Rev. 21:10-11).

Blessed are we indeed. Glory and praise forever!