I really should have titled the previous post "Kadesh" - that's where the story happened. The point was that the Lord was giving a seemingly impossible task to the Israelites and asking that they trust in him to give them the victory.
I see many parallels in modern life. Recently I talked to a guy that had worked in the maximum security prison system as a guard. This guy's job was to be the first guy into the room on the unit whose task it was to take down the "worst of the worst" inmates that weren't obeying the rules. If you've ever seen this sort of thing on TV (on 60 minutes, etc.) it's very sobering. A team of guys who look like defensive lineman, dressed in body armor, come to the door of a maximum security jail cell, the door is opened, they go in and the inmate comes out. There is a lot of violence in between. It's not unheard of for the inmate to strip naked, cover himself in oil (to make himself hard to hold on to), strap sharp objects in both hands and spread his own feces over the floor of the room (sorry - a necessary detail). This is to say nothing of the verbal abuse, threats against your family and being hated by all of the inmates in the prison. It is not a job for the faint of heart.
This particular guy was forced to find other work when his body suffered a lot of damage from a 300-lb inmate who jumped off of the bed and landed on top of him as he went in. This guy wasn't complaining because the inmate who jumped actually stabbed the guy behind him in the neck (where there is a gap in the body armor).
Not surprisingly, the guy said his experience in this job made him a supporter of the death penalty.
The Catechism of the Catholic church #2267 says the following in regards to the death penalty
"...the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor."
but then follows with:
"Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm - without definitively taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself - the cases in which execution of the of the offender is an absolute necessity are 'very rare if not practically non-existent'."
All of my Catholic peers would assent to the above, as do I. But I struggle with the fact that this assent doesn't cost us anything. My Catholic peers aren't the people who are going to put their bodies on the line "rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm". I wasn't about to argue the point (with the guy who was telling me the story) in any case but I am struck by the parallels to the Kadesh incident about which I have just written previously. An experienced man giving his testimony that keeping these inmates alive is too costly (not just in terms of money - and with personal evidence to back it up) - seems to me like the scouts coming back saying the land can't be taken. And the Church (under the guidance of the Holy Spirit) saying the circumstances for the death penalty are "rare if practically non-existent". Sort of like Moses telling the people it is the will of the LORD.
I'm not giving answers here. But here is the truth - I pray for the grace to stick to the teaching of the Church when the going gets tough, I'm thankful for the people who do those tough jobs and I hope that God gives me the grace I need if it's ever my kid who's job it is to be the first one through that door...
...
Monday, June 23, 2008
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Meribah Redux
It seems to me that one problem with humility is that it can get lost in the written word.
Case in point - the Apostles (Peter especially). Peter's portrayal in the gospel is so unpretentious, so "everyday", so genuine, that I have a hard time not taking him for granted. It wasn't until I read other, later writers (names escape me just now - sorry), who were converted by Peter's preaching & example, and who refer to him as "the glorious apostle Peter" that I had a better idea and sense of the man as he stands in relation to me.
Recently, I'm finding a similar deal with the Israelites of the Exodus.
Like the gospels, the books of the Pentateuch are so bluntly honest about their "failures" that it's easy for me to miss what was being asked of them.
This morning I got up early and felt inspired to read a little bit of the Book of Revelation (haven't read it in a while). So, I flip to the back of my bible and wind up in the Book of Jude (lt's the second-to-last book - just before Revelation). Now, I don't read Jude very often (I can't quote it, etc.). For those who don't know, Jude has one chapter and a total of 25 verses. I get three verses into it and I read this:
Jude 1: 3-5 - "Beloved, although I was making every effort to write to you about our common salvation, I now feel a need to write to encourage you to contend for the faith that was once for all handed down to the holy ones. For there have been some intruders, who long ago were designated for this condemnation, godless persons, who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness and who deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. I wish to remind you, although you know all things, that (the) Lord who once saved a people from the land of Egypt later destroyed those who did not believe."
There is a footnote reference to that last, rather ominous, line that took me to the Book of Numbers where, in Chapters 13 & 14 I found the following verses (below). The context is that the people have made it through the desert and arrived at the Promised Land. Scouts are sent to "re-connoiter" the land and come back with a distressing report that the land is inhabited by "giants". Here is the account:
Numbers 13:26-33 - "After reconnoitering the land for forty days they returned, met Moses and Aaron and the whole community of the Israelites in the desert of Paran at Kadesh, made a report to them all, and showed them the fruit of the country. They told Moses: "We went into the land to which you sent us. It does indeed flow with milk and honey, and here is its fruit. However, the people who are living in the land are fierce, and the towns are fortified and very strong. Besides, we saw descendants of the Anakim there. Amalekites live in the region of the Negeb; Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites dwell in the highlands, and Canaanites along the seacoast and the banks of the Jordan." Caleb, however, to quiet the people toward Moses, said, "We ought to go up and seize the land, for we can certainly do so." But the men who had gone up with him said, "We cannot attack these people; they are too strong for us." So they spread discouraging reports among the Israelites about the land they had scouted, saying, "The land that we explored is a country that consumes its inhabitants. And all the people we saw there are huge men, veritable giants (the Anakim were a race of giants); we felt like mere grasshoppers, and so we must have seemed to them."
Continuing...
Numbers 14:1-24
"At this, the whole community broke out with loud cries, and even in the night the people wailed. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, the whole community saying to them, "Would that we had died in the land of Egypt, or that here in the desert we were dead! Why is the LORD bringing us into this land only to have us fall by the sword? Our wives and little ones will be taken as booty. Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?" So they said to one another, "Let us appoint a leader and go back to Egypt." But Moses and Aaron fell prostrate before the whole assembled community of the Israelites; while Joshua, son of Nun, and Caleb, son of Jephunneh, who had been in the party that scouted the land, tore their garments and said to the whole community of the Israelites, "The country which we went through and explored is a fine, rich land. If the LORD is pleased with us, he will bring us in and give us that land, a land flowing with milk and honey. But do not rebel against the LORD! You need not be afraid of the people of that land; they are but food for us! Their defense has left them, but the LORD is with us. Therefore, do not be afraid of them." In answer, the whole community threatened to stone them. But then the glory of the LORD appeared at the meeting tent to all the Israelites. And the LORD said to Moses, "How long will this people spurn me? How long will they refuse to believe in me, despite all the signs I have performed among them? I will strike them with pestilence and wipe them out. Then I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they." But Moses said to the LORD: "Are the Egyptians to hear of this? For by your power you brought out this people from among them. And are they to tell of it to the inhabitants of this land? It has been heard that you, O LORD, are in the midst of this people; you, LORD, who plainly reveal yourself! Your cloud stands over them, and you go before them by day in a column of cloud and by night in a column of fire. If now you slay this whole people, the nations who have heard such reports of you will say, 'The LORD was not able to bring this people into the land he swore to give them; that is why he slaughtered them in the desert.' Now then, let the power of my Lord be displayed in its greatness, even as you have said, 'The LORD is slow to anger and rich in kindness, forgiving wickedness and crime; yet not declaring the guilty guiltless, but punishing children to the third and fourth generation for their fathers' wickedness.' Pardon, then, the wickedness of this people in keeping with your great kindness, even as you have forgiven them from Egypt until now." The LORD answered: "I pardon them as you have asked. Yet, by my life and the LORD'S glory that fills the whole earth, of all the men who have seen my glory and the signs I worked in Egypt and in the desert, and who nevertheless have put me to the test ten times already and have failed to heed my voice, not one shall see the land which I promised on oath to their fathers. None of these who have spurned me shall see it. But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me unreservedly, I will bring him into the land where he has just been, and his descendants shall possess it."
Now, avoiding the anecdotal issue as to whether giants actually existed in the Promised Land, nevertheless, the scouts were convinced that based on a reasonable assessment of the observable factors, the Israelites could not win the Promised Land by battle. These are experienced men giving their opinion. And the reaction of the people really strikes me - repeatedly bringing up a desire to "return to Egypt". It's humbling to admit this, but I recognize in myself the same propensity, a desire to "return to Egypt". The irony, of course, is that the Israelites cried out to God to take them OUT of Egypt. I see parallels in my own life. In the face of the earthly assessment by reasonable men, God gives the command to go forward. What a spiritual message. Sometimes I find the Christian faith to be impossible - I can't imagine finding the strength to endure a martyrdom like those of the Roman persecution, or even those that happen today. At times, I wonder: why did I ever take up this religion that involves so much sacrifice? I was better off the "old way" (a lie of course)! At times I am reduced to saying "Thy will be done".
Authentic faith in God asks Him to enable us to do the seemingly impossible. I can't be reminded of this often enough.
Case in point - the Apostles (Peter especially). Peter's portrayal in the gospel is so unpretentious, so "everyday", so genuine, that I have a hard time not taking him for granted. It wasn't until I read other, later writers (names escape me just now - sorry), who were converted by Peter's preaching & example, and who refer to him as "the glorious apostle Peter" that I had a better idea and sense of the man as he stands in relation to me.
Recently, I'm finding a similar deal with the Israelites of the Exodus.
Like the gospels, the books of the Pentateuch are so bluntly honest about their "failures" that it's easy for me to miss what was being asked of them.
This morning I got up early and felt inspired to read a little bit of the Book of Revelation (haven't read it in a while). So, I flip to the back of my bible and wind up in the Book of Jude (lt's the second-to-last book - just before Revelation). Now, I don't read Jude very often (I can't quote it, etc.). For those who don't know, Jude has one chapter and a total of 25 verses. I get three verses into it and I read this:
Jude 1: 3-5 - "Beloved, although I was making every effort to write to you about our common salvation, I now feel a need to write to encourage you to contend for the faith that was once for all handed down to the holy ones. For there have been some intruders, who long ago were designated for this condemnation, godless persons, who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness and who deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. I wish to remind you, although you know all things, that (the) Lord who once saved a people from the land of Egypt later destroyed those who did not believe."
There is a footnote reference to that last, rather ominous, line that took me to the Book of Numbers where, in Chapters 13 & 14 I found the following verses (below). The context is that the people have made it through the desert and arrived at the Promised Land. Scouts are sent to "re-connoiter" the land and come back with a distressing report that the land is inhabited by "giants". Here is the account:
Numbers 13:26-33 - "After reconnoitering the land for forty days they returned, met Moses and Aaron and the whole community of the Israelites in the desert of Paran at Kadesh, made a report to them all, and showed them the fruit of the country. They told Moses: "We went into the land to which you sent us. It does indeed flow with milk and honey, and here is its fruit. However, the people who are living in the land are fierce, and the towns are fortified and very strong. Besides, we saw descendants of the Anakim there. Amalekites live in the region of the Negeb; Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites dwell in the highlands, and Canaanites along the seacoast and the banks of the Jordan." Caleb, however, to quiet the people toward Moses, said, "We ought to go up and seize the land, for we can certainly do so." But the men who had gone up with him said, "We cannot attack these people; they are too strong for us." So they spread discouraging reports among the Israelites about the land they had scouted, saying, "The land that we explored is a country that consumes its inhabitants. And all the people we saw there are huge men, veritable giants (the Anakim were a race of giants); we felt like mere grasshoppers, and so we must have seemed to them."
Continuing...
Numbers 14:1-24
"At this, the whole community broke out with loud cries, and even in the night the people wailed. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, the whole community saying to them, "Would that we had died in the land of Egypt, or that here in the desert we were dead! Why is the LORD bringing us into this land only to have us fall by the sword? Our wives and little ones will be taken as booty. Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?" So they said to one another, "Let us appoint a leader and go back to Egypt." But Moses and Aaron fell prostrate before the whole assembled community of the Israelites; while Joshua, son of Nun, and Caleb, son of Jephunneh, who had been in the party that scouted the land, tore their garments and said to the whole community of the Israelites, "The country which we went through and explored is a fine, rich land. If the LORD is pleased with us, he will bring us in and give us that land, a land flowing with milk and honey. But do not rebel against the LORD! You need not be afraid of the people of that land; they are but food for us! Their defense has left them, but the LORD is with us. Therefore, do not be afraid of them." In answer, the whole community threatened to stone them. But then the glory of the LORD appeared at the meeting tent to all the Israelites. And the LORD said to Moses, "How long will this people spurn me? How long will they refuse to believe in me, despite all the signs I have performed among them? I will strike them with pestilence and wipe them out. Then I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they." But Moses said to the LORD: "Are the Egyptians to hear of this? For by your power you brought out this people from among them. And are they to tell of it to the inhabitants of this land? It has been heard that you, O LORD, are in the midst of this people; you, LORD, who plainly reveal yourself! Your cloud stands over them, and you go before them by day in a column of cloud and by night in a column of fire. If now you slay this whole people, the nations who have heard such reports of you will say, 'The LORD was not able to bring this people into the land he swore to give them; that is why he slaughtered them in the desert.' Now then, let the power of my Lord be displayed in its greatness, even as you have said, 'The LORD is slow to anger and rich in kindness, forgiving wickedness and crime; yet not declaring the guilty guiltless, but punishing children to the third and fourth generation for their fathers' wickedness.' Pardon, then, the wickedness of this people in keeping with your great kindness, even as you have forgiven them from Egypt until now." The LORD answered: "I pardon them as you have asked. Yet, by my life and the LORD'S glory that fills the whole earth, of all the men who have seen my glory and the signs I worked in Egypt and in the desert, and who nevertheless have put me to the test ten times already and have failed to heed my voice, not one shall see the land which I promised on oath to their fathers. None of these who have spurned me shall see it. But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me unreservedly, I will bring him into the land where he has just been, and his descendants shall possess it."
Now, avoiding the anecdotal issue as to whether giants actually existed in the Promised Land, nevertheless, the scouts were convinced that based on a reasonable assessment of the observable factors, the Israelites could not win the Promised Land by battle. These are experienced men giving their opinion. And the reaction of the people really strikes me - repeatedly bringing up a desire to "return to Egypt". It's humbling to admit this, but I recognize in myself the same propensity, a desire to "return to Egypt". The irony, of course, is that the Israelites cried out to God to take them OUT of Egypt. I see parallels in my own life. In the face of the earthly assessment by reasonable men, God gives the command to go forward. What a spiritual message. Sometimes I find the Christian faith to be impossible - I can't imagine finding the strength to endure a martyrdom like those of the Roman persecution, or even those that happen today. At times, I wonder: why did I ever take up this religion that involves so much sacrifice? I was better off the "old way" (a lie of course)! At times I am reduced to saying "Thy will be done".
Authentic faith in God asks Him to enable us to do the seemingly impossible. I can't be reminded of this often enough.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Life does NOT go fast...
...but at the end we all ask "Is that all there was?".
Quite recently, a family friend fell very ill and was literally at death's door. Thanks be God, they have recovered (a seeming miracle), but it was "touch and go" there for a few days. In reflecting on the reality that our earthly relationship with this person might draw suddenly to a close, I was struck with a feeling of "Is that all there was? Is it over?" As my mind wandered to the other deaths I have dealt with recently I found that the same feeling holds. Take my dad for instance, my relationship with him somehow seems incomplete, as though there were chapters that remain still to be written but never will be.
My parents and grandparents used to use the proverbial phrases "Life goes fast" or "Life's too short". I don't think these quite get it right. I don't find life to be fast. Indeed, I find that much of life is very slow. But, I am beginning to recognize that when death arrives, I repeatedly find myself asking "Is that all there was? Is there nothing more?" I guess, in this sense, it can seem, in the face of the "once-ness" of life, that it went "fast". It is a strange sort of ironic blessing that with my daughter Theresa I experienced some of the "slowest" and "longest" days of my life with her early breathing difficulties which now make the short nine months that we had her seem qualitatively like more than they actually were. For my other children, who didn't have any breathing problems (or any problems, really) the first nine months of their lives seem to have passed such that I can't even recall specifics.
Coupled to this "is that all there is?" observation is another one that came to me early this morning. I recognize that there are in some sense two sets or classes of things that I devote my attention to. The first are the "urgent" - things related to work that come up quickly and require all of my attention to get them off of my plate so that I'm ready for the next one. Dealing with these is like handling the proverbial "hot potato". Parallel to, but separate from, the "urgent" are what I will call the "important" - e.g. my wife, my kids, my faith. These I liken to writing in a book, using carefully chosen words, written in flowing script with a quill pen, and oriented toward a long view.
That said, my life at present is something like trying to do both of these things at the exact same time - juggle the hot potato and write the book with the quill pen. As can be imagined, the juggling of the hot potato causes the writing of the book to happen in fits and starts, a stream of consciousness with lots of unfinished sentences.
The spiritual insight that I have been receiving (this time courtesy of Fr. J.P. Cassaude...) recently is that this state of "juggling/writing" IS the life of man as written by God. The book that will ultimately matter in the end is not the frantic disjoint scribbling I manage to get out in-between hot potatoes (sp? - help Dan Quayle...), but rather the book being written by God in my heart as I do my best to cooperate with the power (called "Grace") He gives me to do it. I find a sense of relief and peace in this knowledge.
Otherwise, I would get pretty sick of the hot potatoes...
...
Quite recently, a family friend fell very ill and was literally at death's door. Thanks be God, they have recovered (a seeming miracle), but it was "touch and go" there for a few days. In reflecting on the reality that our earthly relationship with this person might draw suddenly to a close, I was struck with a feeling of "Is that all there was? Is it over?" As my mind wandered to the other deaths I have dealt with recently I found that the same feeling holds. Take my dad for instance, my relationship with him somehow seems incomplete, as though there were chapters that remain still to be written but never will be.
My parents and grandparents used to use the proverbial phrases "Life goes fast" or "Life's too short". I don't think these quite get it right. I don't find life to be fast. Indeed, I find that much of life is very slow. But, I am beginning to recognize that when death arrives, I repeatedly find myself asking "Is that all there was? Is there nothing more?" I guess, in this sense, it can seem, in the face of the "once-ness" of life, that it went "fast". It is a strange sort of ironic blessing that with my daughter Theresa I experienced some of the "slowest" and "longest" days of my life with her early breathing difficulties which now make the short nine months that we had her seem qualitatively like more than they actually were. For my other children, who didn't have any breathing problems (or any problems, really) the first nine months of their lives seem to have passed such that I can't even recall specifics.
Coupled to this "is that all there is?" observation is another one that came to me early this morning. I recognize that there are in some sense two sets or classes of things that I devote my attention to. The first are the "urgent" - things related to work that come up quickly and require all of my attention to get them off of my plate so that I'm ready for the next one. Dealing with these is like handling the proverbial "hot potato". Parallel to, but separate from, the "urgent" are what I will call the "important" - e.g. my wife, my kids, my faith. These I liken to writing in a book, using carefully chosen words, written in flowing script with a quill pen, and oriented toward a long view.
That said, my life at present is something like trying to do both of these things at the exact same time - juggle the hot potato and write the book with the quill pen. As can be imagined, the juggling of the hot potato causes the writing of the book to happen in fits and starts, a stream of consciousness with lots of unfinished sentences.
The spiritual insight that I have been receiving (this time courtesy of Fr. J.P. Cassaude...) recently is that this state of "juggling/writing" IS the life of man as written by God. The book that will ultimately matter in the end is not the frantic disjoint scribbling I manage to get out in-between hot potatoes (sp? - help Dan Quayle...), but rather the book being written by God in my heart as I do my best to cooperate with the power (called "Grace") He gives me to do it. I find a sense of relief and peace in this knowledge.
Otherwise, I would get pretty sick of the hot potatoes...
...
Thursday, June 12, 2008
I Love the Liturgy of the Hours
This doesn't really fit in with the next series I want to do here, but I just had to blog about it. Since Lent 2006, I have been pretty consistent about doing Morning Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours. It has been my experience that on many occasions I have been struck by verses from scripture in the Morning Prayer that speak clearly and directly to real situations I have going on that day. I wish I had time to blog about them all. This morning was a little different, but I felt it was so close to what I want the ultimate theme of this blog to be about - namely the presence of God - that I just had to write.
For those who don't know, Morning Prayer in the Liturgy of the Hours begins each day with the Invitatory Psalm in a responsorial form. This is what it was today:
Let us exult in the Lord’s presence.
Come, let us rejoice in the Lord, let us acclaim God our salvation.
Let us come before him proclaiming our thanks, let us acclaim him with songs.
Let us exult in the Lord’s presence.
For the Lord is a great God, a king above all gods.
For he holds the depths of the earth in his hands, and the peaks of the mountains are his.
For the sea is his: he made it; and his hands formed the dry land.
Let us exult in the Lord’s presence.
Come, let us worship and bow down, bend the knee before the Lord who made us;
for he himself is our God and we are his flock, the sheep that follow his hand.
Let us exult in the Lord’s presence.
If only, today, you would listen to his voice: “Do not harden your hearts
as you did at Meribah, on the day of Massah in the desert, when your fathers tested me –
they put me to the test, although they had seen my works”.
Let us exult in the Lord’s presence.
“For forty years they wearied me, that generation.
I said: their hearts are wandering, they do not know my paths.
I swore in my anger: they will never enter my place of rest”
Let us exult in the Lord’s presence.
I had a vague recollection of the story of Meribah, but I decided to go look it up. Here's what I found:
Exodus 17:1-7 -
From the desert of Sin the whole Israelite community journeyed by stages, as the LORD directed, and encamped at Rephidim. Here there was no water for the people to drink. They quarreled, therefore, with Moses and said, "Give us water to drink." Moses replied, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the LORD to a test?" Here, then, in their thirst for water, the people grumbled against Moses, saying, "Why did you ever make us leave Egypt? Was it just to have us die here of thirst with our children and our livestock?" So Moses cried out to the LORD, "What shall I do with this people? A little more and they will stone me!" The LORD answered Moses, "Go over there in front of the people, along with some of the elders of Israel, holding in your hand, as you go, the staff with which you struck the river. I will be standing there in front of you on the rock in Horeb. Strike the rock, and the water will flow from it for the people to drink." This Moses did, in the presence of the elders of Israel. The place was called Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled there and tested the LORD, saying, "Is the LORD in our midst or not?"
There are two things I take away from this - First, having lost a child, I can hear and see myself grumbling against the Lord if I saw my kids thirsting for water. It's one thing for ME to thirst and try not to grumble, it's another to watch THEM thirst. Second - it seems to me that the question for those of the Judeo/Christian faith is ALWAYS - "Is the LORD in our midst or not?" Mind you, this isn't an intellectual question - we don't give our true answer to this question when we are sitting at a computer writing a blog.
God's presence doesn't satisfy our flesh, it stretches our spirit. Isaiah world-changing prophecy for "Emmanuel" - "God with us" - is another "go" at Meribah and Massah. Jesus REAL PRESENCE in the Eucharist leaves us with the same tension.
It seems to me that if someone isn't struggling with this question ("Is the LORD in our midst?") then there must be only two possibilities - they are either already well-conformed to Jesus Christ, or they haven't left Egypt yet.
The morning prayer for today continues with Psalm 80. I found this to be a "barn-burner" too. I quote just the relevant part:
“I freed his back from burdens;
his hands were freed from heavy loads.
In your tribulation you called on me and I freed you,
I heard you from the heart of the storm,
I tested you at the waters of Meribah.
Listen, my people, and I will put my case –
Israel, if you would only hear me!
You shall not have any strange god,
you shall not worship the gods of foreigners.
For I am the Lord, your God,
who led you out of the land of Egypt.
Open wide your mouth and I shall fill it.
But my people did not hear my voice:
Israel did not turn to me.
So I let them go on in the hardness of their hearts,
and follow their own counsels.
If my people had heard me,
if only they had walked in my ways –
I would swiftly have crushed their enemies,
stretched my hand over those who persecuted them.
The enemies of the Lord would be overcome with weakness,
Israel’s would be the good fortune, for ever:
I would feed them full of richest wheat
and give them honey from the rock,
to their heart’s content.
The highlighted line - "I tested you at the waters of Meribah" is the one that struck me. The problem with Meribah was that they had NO water. It was when the people grumbled against Moses that the LORD said - I WILL BE THERE. The water of Meribah was almost like the proof that HE was there.
God, give me the grace not to grumble when the water runs short.
For those who don't know, Morning Prayer in the Liturgy of the Hours begins each day with the Invitatory Psalm in a responsorial form. This is what it was today:
Let us exult in the Lord’s presence.
Come, let us rejoice in the Lord, let us acclaim God our salvation.
Let us come before him proclaiming our thanks, let us acclaim him with songs.
Let us exult in the Lord’s presence.
For the Lord is a great God, a king above all gods.
For he holds the depths of the earth in his hands, and the peaks of the mountains are his.
For the sea is his: he made it; and his hands formed the dry land.
Let us exult in the Lord’s presence.
Come, let us worship and bow down, bend the knee before the Lord who made us;
for he himself is our God and we are his flock, the sheep that follow his hand.
Let us exult in the Lord’s presence.
If only, today, you would listen to his voice: “Do not harden your hearts
as you did at Meribah, on the day of Massah in the desert, when your fathers tested me –
they put me to the test, although they had seen my works”.
Let us exult in the Lord’s presence.
“For forty years they wearied me, that generation.
I said: their hearts are wandering, they do not know my paths.
I swore in my anger: they will never enter my place of rest”
Let us exult in the Lord’s presence.
I had a vague recollection of the story of Meribah, but I decided to go look it up. Here's what I found:
Exodus 17:1-7 -
From the desert of Sin the whole Israelite community journeyed by stages, as the LORD directed, and encamped at Rephidim. Here there was no water for the people to drink. They quarreled, therefore, with Moses and said, "Give us water to drink." Moses replied, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the LORD to a test?" Here, then, in their thirst for water, the people grumbled against Moses, saying, "Why did you ever make us leave Egypt? Was it just to have us die here of thirst with our children and our livestock?" So Moses cried out to the LORD, "What shall I do with this people? A little more and they will stone me!" The LORD answered Moses, "Go over there in front of the people, along with some of the elders of Israel, holding in your hand, as you go, the staff with which you struck the river. I will be standing there in front of you on the rock in Horeb. Strike the rock, and the water will flow from it for the people to drink." This Moses did, in the presence of the elders of Israel. The place was called Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled there and tested the LORD, saying, "Is the LORD in our midst or not?"
There are two things I take away from this - First, having lost a child, I can hear and see myself grumbling against the Lord if I saw my kids thirsting for water. It's one thing for ME to thirst and try not to grumble, it's another to watch THEM thirst. Second - it seems to me that the question for those of the Judeo/Christian faith is ALWAYS - "Is the LORD in our midst or not?" Mind you, this isn't an intellectual question - we don't give our true answer to this question when we are sitting at a computer writing a blog.
God's presence doesn't satisfy our flesh, it stretches our spirit. Isaiah world-changing prophecy for "Emmanuel" - "God with us" - is another "go" at Meribah and Massah. Jesus REAL PRESENCE in the Eucharist leaves us with the same tension.
It seems to me that if someone isn't struggling with this question ("Is the LORD in our midst?") then there must be only two possibilities - they are either already well-conformed to Jesus Christ, or they haven't left Egypt yet.
The morning prayer for today continues with Psalm 80. I found this to be a "barn-burner" too. I quote just the relevant part:
“I freed his back from burdens;
his hands were freed from heavy loads.
In your tribulation you called on me and I freed you,
I heard you from the heart of the storm,
I tested you at the waters of Meribah.
Listen, my people, and I will put my case –
Israel, if you would only hear me!
You shall not have any strange god,
you shall not worship the gods of foreigners.
For I am the Lord, your God,
who led you out of the land of Egypt.
Open wide your mouth and I shall fill it.
But my people did not hear my voice:
Israel did not turn to me.
So I let them go on in the hardness of their hearts,
and follow their own counsels.
If my people had heard me,
if only they had walked in my ways –
I would swiftly have crushed their enemies,
stretched my hand over those who persecuted them.
The enemies of the Lord would be overcome with weakness,
Israel’s would be the good fortune, for ever:
I would feed them full of richest wheat
and give them honey from the rock,
to their heart’s content.
The highlighted line - "I tested you at the waters of Meribah" is the one that struck me. The problem with Meribah was that they had NO water. It was when the people grumbled against Moses that the LORD said - I WILL BE THERE. The water of Meribah was almost like the proof that HE was there.
God, give me the grace not to grumble when the water runs short.
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