Scripture:
Numbers 11:4b-15
Matthew 14:22-36
Reflection:
Times are tough these days. Everyone is affected, even our children know it. And world-wide the very poor experience it more than everyone else. For the Israelites who followed Moses into the desert, times too were tough. Insufficient food, not enough variety. Yes, they had the manna which rained down daily, … but every day, morn and night, oily cakes? No wonder they looked back to Egypt - to the big pots of boiling meat and vegetables: the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. It reads almost like a recipe. One can imagine the pungent odors wafting through their memories so that they forget the price they had to pay for them, the slavery they had endured.
When Moses enters the Meeting Tent to speak with God face-to-face, they were to stand at the doors of their tents and pray. Instead, they grumble to one another, centered only on their present miseries, making gods of their stomachs. Moses has had it. Feeling himself no leader from the very start, he is completely frustrated by the ungrateful people and their grumbling. Face-to-face with the Lord he tries to disown them, questioning God rhetorically whether he, Moses, conceived them, whether he gave them birth, whether he should have them hanging round his neck. They really are not his parental responsibility. "If this lot is the best You can give me," he argues, "better to let me die now and be through with them." Face-to-face he complains to the Lord, for he loves the Lord and he knows that the Lord loves him.
The disciples of Jesus are also running into tough times. Out in the boat battered by a rough stormy sea without their leader, who had sent them into it. Where is he? Like Moses he is off with God, speaking to Him face-to-face. Then he comes to them - walking on the sea. Seeing him walking. they cry out in fear. At once Jesus responds: "Take courage, I’m here, do not be afraid." Impetuous Peter in a great burst of faith responds: "Command me to walk on the water to you." "Come," says Jesus. Peter jumps onto the sea. Then as fear begins to dampen his courage and faith, he begins to sink. "Lord, save me!" Immediately Jesus catches him with one hand, and kindly, reassuringly, asks him, "Why did you doubt?"
How do we experience the trials of today’s tough times? How do we experience the responsibility of Moses? How do we carry on the ministry and mission of Peter and the disciples? Do we strengthen our courage by holding on to Jesus’s hand, keeping our eye on him, talking to him face-to-face and heart to heart? Or do we in our own way hearken back to the fleshpots of Egypt?
Peter Fitzpatrick, CFX, is a Xaverian Brother living at Ryken House, Louisville, across Bear Grass Creek from the Passionist Community Sacred Heart Monastery.
