18th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15; Ephesians 4:17, 20-24; John 6:24-35
| THOU mastering me |
| God! giver of breath and bread; |
| World’s strand, sway of the sea; |
| Lord of living and dead; |
| Thou hast bound bones and veins in me, fastened me flesh, |
| And after it almost unmade, what with dread, |
| Thy doing: and dost thou touch me afresh? |
| Over again I feel thy finger and find thee.
(Gerard Manley Hopkins, |
It did not take very long for the escaping slaves to use up their provisions. Once they did, they blamed God and Moses for their hunger and thirst. They quickly forgot the wonders God performed at the Red Sea and actually wanted to go back to the land of bitter slavery. They were willing to submit again to the lash, just to get a cut of soup. The author of Exodus tells us that people grumbled and lost the will to continue their journey to the land of promise. This grumbling went from their lips to God’s ears. Something we ought to think about, whenever we fret, God hears all our grumbling.
Saint Benedict is absolutely intolerant of grumbling. This may seem strange to a society that thinks everything needs be broadcast and communicated. Following the example of the Dessert Fathers, Benedict was of the opinion that sometimes even good and holy thoughts should be kept to oneself and that murmuring should never be tolerated. The events of life are not to be grumbled about. They are to be embraced and pondered under the watchful gaze of our Loving Father. Therefore, stop grumbling and start pondering the events of your life so that you can feel God’s finger again and find Him.
Saint Benedict condemns murmuring because it attacks the very heart of the community and blinds the individual to providential handiwork of God. In Benedict’s mind, nothing is more disruptive of monastic life than murmuring. Murmuring is a barrier to one’s confidence in God’s love. Murmuring deafens the ears of the heart to the Word of God that echoes within us. If we stop grumbling, the Seed of the Word will take root in our hearts and our eyes will see God’s love at work in our lives. As the Word of life grows within us, we will see that everything that happens to us as a proof of God’s will and care for us.
The believer is called to walk in the Light of Faith, one who does so will feel the Finger of God and find Him. In finding Him, we find ourselves, because we have been created in His image and likeness. He who is the Way, the True and the Life presents Himself to us and allows us to see the beauty of God’s grace at work within us. This grace brings us to fullness of life in Christ, the Beloved Son, and empowers us to accomplish the works of God.
In our encounter with Christ, the Everlasting Father chooses to touch us afresh. The hand, once outstretched to create us is now outstretched to recreate us. We need to stop grumbling about life as we have it and start pondering the works of the Giver of breath and bread. Seeing our hunger and thirst, the Creator and Sustainer of all life touches us afresh. He opens our eyes to see that our true greatness rests on us because He sends His Spirit upon us like the “dewfall”. The action of the morning dew is quiet, unseen, mysterious and gentle. In the glistening light of day, the dewfall reveals to us the living bread that comes down from heaven. Jesus himself, the Bread of Life, is the Gift of the Father, given to us as our food for the journey home. When we stop grumbling, we can start feeding on the Word that comes from the mouth of God. With the ears of our heart, we can hear the words of everlasting life. Like the morning dew, newness of life in Christ is given to us. Over again we feel the handiwork of God and come to know his love.
The journey to our heavenly homeland is a pilgrimage of faith, engaged in by the entire People of God. None of us walks alone. We go through our faith journey as members of the Church, the Body of Christ. Each of us is a member, one of another. We have only to recall these words of the Apostle to the Gentiles: “If one part suffers, every part suffers; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it” (1 Cor. 12:26). Rather than grumble, we need to ponder the wounds that afflict the Body of Christ and cry out to the Divine Physician to heal the hurts of sin and scandal. We need to ponder the trials and sufferings that threaten the life and identity of the Church as we journey together to our heavenly homeland.
In the light of recent news, many people are outraged and scandalized. The magnitude of these scandals and their associated hypocrisy threaten the credibility of the Church as the People of God. This is not a time for grumbling. This is a time for pondering our failure as a community of faith and to turn to the One who can heal us and make us whole again. God is the one who sees the affliction of his people. God is the one who can rescue us from our sins and heal the wounds of the victims. In our confusion, we are helpless and can do nothing for ourselves. Only when we ponder our helplessness can we surrender to God’s love and will for us. As we journey through life, we must embrace our weakness and sinfulness and confess our need for God who is faithful to His promises. As we ponder God’s Word, he will reveal himself to us and mold us anew into the likeness of his Son.
During these difficult times we can discover where our heart and affections lie. This discovery will compel us to die to ourselves as we continue our pilgrimage of faith. This is God’s way of making us “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that we may declare the praise of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Pet. 2:9). Ass that we need to survive as a community of God’s People can only be supplied by God. The Spirit, at work in us during these trying times, can make us the sacrament of Christ in the world.
| THOU mastering me |
| God! giver of breath and bread; |
| World’s strand, sway of the sea; |
| Lord of living and dead; |
| Thou hast bound bones and veins in me, fastened me flesh, |
| And after it almost unmade, what with dread, |
| Thy doing: and dost thou touch me afresh? |
| Over again I feel thy finger and find thee.(Gerard Manley Hopkins, “The Wreck of the Deutschland”) |
Comments are closed.