Shew Me Thy Glory: The Face Moses Could Not See and the Son Who Declared Him
Old Testament: Exodus 33:18, 20, 22-23
And he said: shew me thy glory. ... And again he said: Thou canst not see my face: for man shall not see me and live. ... And when my glory shall pass, I will set thee in a hole of the rock, and protect thee with my right hand, till I pass: And I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face thou canst not see.
Old Testament, also: Isaias 6:5
And I said: Woe is me, because I have held my peace; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people that hath unclean lips, and I have seen with my eyes the King the Lord of hosts.
New Testament: John 1:17-18; John 12:41; Apocalypse 1:17; Apocalypse 6:15-16
For the law was given by Moses; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man hath seen God at any time: the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. ... These things said Isaias, when he saw his glory, and spoke of him. ... And when I had seen him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying: Fear not. I am the First and the Last, ... And the kings of the earth, and the princes, and tribunes, and the rich, and the strong, and every bondman, and every freeman, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of mountains: And they say to the mountains and the rocks: Fall upon us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb:
The connection
Moses asked for the one thing he had not been given: "shew me thy glory." God answered, "Thou canst not see my face: for man shall not see me and live", set him in a hole of the rock, covered him with His right hand while the glory passed, and let him see only His back parts (Exodus 33:18-23). St John answers that scene in the opening of his Gospel, naming Moses as he does: "the law was given by Moses; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man hath seen God at any time: the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him" (John 1:17-18). What was refused to Moses is given in the Son, and on the mountain of the Transfiguration Moses stands beside that shining face at last (Matthew 17:2-3). Those who did glimpse the glory knew the sentence was true. Isaias saw the Lord on His throne and cried, "Woe is me" (Isaias 6:5), and John says whose glory it was: "Isaias ... saw his glory, and spoke of him" (John 12:41). John himself saw the risen Christ and "fell at his feet as dead", until "he laid his right hand upon me, saying: Fear not" (Apocalypse 1:17), the same right hand that covered Moses in the rock. St Irenaeus binds the scenes together. Moses' request signifies "that it is impossible for man to see God; and that, through the wisdom of God, man shall see Him in the last times, in the depth of a rock, that is, in His coming as a man", and John fell as dead "that what was written might come to pass: No man sees God, and shall live." St Hilary: "it was God the Only-begotten Whom the prophet saw in that glory." The Catechism quotes John 1:18 as the ground of faith in Christ (CCC 151).
Moral sense
Being hidden in the rock was not a refusal but a mercy. St Cyril of Jerusalem gives God's answer to Moses: "as being little, thou shalt lodge in a little space." Moses was given all he could bear and kept safe while the rest passed. Everyone who meets the glory comes undone: Isaias cries woe, John falls as dead. And each is raised by a touch, the coal on Isaias' lips, the right hand laid upon John. That is how God still comes to us, hidden in His flesh and His sacraments, close enough to touch and veiled enough to bear. The fear is right, and the next word is "Fear not."
Anagogical sense
At the end everyone is found in the rock before the face of God. Moses was hidden there as a friend, covered by God's own hand. The kings and the mighty hide there as enemies, begging the mountains, "Fall upon us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne" (Apocalypse 6:16). The same rock, the same face, and two endings. For the friends of God the sentence of Sinai is reversed: "they shall see his face: and his name shall be on their foreheads" (Apocalypse 22:4). To see Him is death to those who flee Him and life itself to those who have asked, with Moses, to see His glory.
The Fathers
St Irenaeus, Against Heresies IV.20.9, 11: "Two facts are thus signified: that it is impossible for man to see God; and that, through the wisdom of God, man shall see Him in the last times, in the depth of a rock, that is, in His coming as a man"; and of John, "I fell at his feet as dead; that what was written might come to pass: No man sees God, and shall live." St Hilary, On the Trinity V: "it was God the Only-begotten Whom the prophet saw in that glory." St Cyril of Jerusalem: "as being little, thou shalt lodge in a little space." Tertullian, Against Marcion IV.22, on the Transfiguration: when Moses asked to see the Lord, "the sight which he desired to have was of that condition which he was to assume as man, and which as a prophet he knew was to occur"; for "Not loins, or calves of the legs, did he want to behold, but the glory which was to be revealed in the latter days." St Augustine, On the Trinity II.17.28: "Not unfitly is it commonly understood to be prefigured from the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, that His back parts are to be taken to be His flesh, in which He was born of the Virgin, and died, and rose again." Origen (Homilies on Exodus XII.3) says the promise that Moses should see the back parts was fulfilled when he appeared in glory with Jesus on the mount of the Transfiguration.
Warrant
Scriptural because John 1:17-18 names Moses and answers his request in the same breath, and John 12:41 says the glory Isaias saw was Christ's. St Irenaeus joins Exodus 33 to the Transfiguration and to John's falling as dead (Against Heresies IV.20.9, 11); St Hilary joins Isaias 6, John 12:41 and John 1:18 (On the Trinity V); St Augustine joins Isaias' vision to Moses' request (Tractates on John LIII). The inversion of Moses sheltered in the rock and the kings hiding in the rocks from the face (Apocalypse 6:15-16) is the entry's own, though Greek supports it: petra and prosopon, rock and face, stand in both the Septuagint of Exodus 33 and Apocalypse 6, and Isaias 2:10 already speaks of hiding in the rock "from the face ... and from the glory". The Douay's "right hand" in Exodus 33:22 follows the Latin dextera; the Septuagint has only "my hand".
Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 151.
The verses
Exodus 33:18 · Exodus 33:20 · Exodus 33:22 · Exodus 33:23 · Isaias 6:5 · John 1:17 · John 1:18 · John 12:41 · Apocalypse 1:17 · Apocalypse 6:15 · Apocalypse 6:16
