Memorial of Saint Dominic, Priest
Do you ever complain to God? Grumble or express your discontent, even anger? I know I do. I don’t mean complaining about other people, I mean complaining about how God seems to be orchestrating things in my life (or in the life of people I care about). Sometimes it seems that as soon as one problem is solved or crisis is dealt with, another one comes down the pike just as I was starting to feel hopeful, even good, about life again.
We read about a similar sort of scenario in today’s first reading (Numbers 20: 1-13) in which the Israelites, who had been lead away from their life of slavery in Egypt, are now complaining because they’re in the desert without any water for themselves or their livestock. The people complain to Moses and Aaron, “Why did you lead us out of Egypt, only to bring us to this wretched place which has neither grain nor figs nor vines nor pomegranates? Here there is not even water to drink!”
I must say that I believe I’ve been as guilty as the Israelites in complaining about the latest hardship in my life, seeming to quickly forget the goodness and mercy I just recently experienced getting me through the previous difficulty. Where does the faith, the trust, in God go so quickly?
Moses and Aaron hear the grumblings of the community and they take the concerns to God who instructs them in performing a miracle to bring abundant water to the thirsty people and their animals. But God is displeased with Moses and Aaron for doubting God’s mercy on the rebellious people who were losing their faith. Do we think God has forgotten us in our time of need? Or do we measure God’s love for us by how easy our life is?
When I begin to feel that God has abandoned me, that God doesn’t really care, I remember Jesus. Ok, here’s God incarnate, becoming like us, one in our suffering and dying. And today’s gospel reading (Matthew 16: 13-23) reminds us that even Simon Peter, the one named as the “Rock” on which Jesus will build His church, doesn’t always understand God’s ways. He doesn’t like what he’s hearing Jesus say about having to suffer and die before rising from the dead. Jesus sharply rebukes Peter and tells him, “You are thinking not as God does but as human beings do.”
I am reminded of Isaiah chapter 55, “Let him turn to the Lord for mercy, to our God, who is generous in forgiving. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.” (vs.7b, 8) Often to our disliking, we don’t always get our way! (And thank God for that.) God’s ways are sometimes hard to understand and even to accept, but I’ve found that when I pray for my will to conform to God’s will, I do have greater peace, and I do experience the mercy, love and compassion of God and of Jesus who knows what it is like to suffer (and even asked that the cup pass him by if that be His father’s will).
As in today’s psalm (95: 1-2, 6-7, 8-9), I pray that rather than hardening our hearts “as in the day of Massah in the desert, where your fathers tested me…though they had seen my works…let us sing joyfully to the Lord; let us acclaim the Rock of our salvation. Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving…for he is our God, and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides.