Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Today’s readings are all about vulnerability. We see in all of them—from Numbers, Psalms, and the Gospel of John—the reality of human frailty as well as the power of God. The Israelites, recently liberated from the oppression of the Egyptians, cry out to God and Moses when they are weary in the desert. Their cries are desperate and show their vulnerability. Elsewhere they ask Moses why he didn’t just leave them to die in Egypt.
In the Gospel reading, the Pharisees (who know well the stories of the Israelites in the desert) demonstrate their own vulnerability, not through desperation and anger but through confusion, pride, and hardness of heart. Jesus tells them that where he is going, they cannot come. This, of course, is because Jesus is divine, but they assume it means he’s going to kill himself! Confusion reigns and they ask Jesus, “Who are you?” to which Jesus gives a long, exasperated reply, probably because he’s been telling them for awhile now and they refuse to listen.
Today’s Psalm is like a thematic refrain we can almost hear in the background of the other readings. “O Lord, hear my prayer,” the psalmist writes, “and let my cry come to you.” We don’t do a lot of loud crying out during Mass but I’m sure that our hearts cry out to God for hundreds of reasons. The desperation of the Israelites and the confusion of the Pharisees are emotions we can all relate to, even if they seem a bit pitiful in the stories. Jesus tells the Pharisees, “You will realize that I AM,” which is a reference to the name God uses when he calls Moses to liberate the Hebrews. It is a powerful title because it tells us that God is the source of all being and that God is a personal God who acts in history. “You will realize that I AM” is a foreshadowing of the weeks to come, when all of our desperation and confusion can be offered up to God in the passion of Jesus. We are soon to realize that Jesus is “I AM,” a realization that is only possible when we come face to face with our own vulnerability and dependence on the love and grace of God.
- Katherine Schmidt