Facing "Giants": What do we do?

In today's first reading, Numbers 13: 1-2, 25-14:1m 26-29a, 34-35, we read about the Israelites being sent into the land of Canaan to "reconnoiter the land." They returned to Moses reporting that truly Canaan is a land flowing "with milk and honey," but that giants live there. "[T]hey are too strong for us....And all the people we saw there are huge, veritable giants."  Moreover, "[t]he land we explored is a country that consumes its inhabitants."  The people wailed all night against God.  Fed up with them, God says to Moses and Aaron:  "How long will this wicked assembly grumble against me? I have heard the grumblings of the children of Israel against me....Forty days you spent scouting the land; forty years you shall suffer for your crimes: one year for each day. Thus you will realize what it means to oppose me...."  So their time in the desert--not in the land flowing "with milk and honey"--would be extended!

We create our own deserts by grumbling against God, by refusing to trust in the Lord and the Lord's promises.  How often do we not exaggerate the difficulties of a job that God asks of us:  "It's too hard." "I can't do that." "All the other kids are giants compared to me."  "There are others far superior to me; much wiser than me; much smarter than me; far more experienced than me," might be our complaints against God on any given day!

Lord, have mercy on us when, like the Israelites, we do not trust you!

A Listening God and a God in Disguise

In today’s first reading, Exodus 16: 1-5, 9-15, the Israelites grumble against God, angry that they are out in the desert, fearful of dying of famine.  “Would that we had died at the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread!”  Through Moses and Aaron, God tells the Israelites to “[p]resent  [themselves] before the Lord, for he has heard [their] grumbling.”  He tells them that “[i]n the evening twilight you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread, so that you may know that I, the Lord, am your God.” 

God always comes through, responding to our needs in ways that far exceed our expectations.

The psalmist, in Psalm 78 of today’s liturgy, states “They tempted God in their hearts by demanding the food they craved. Yes, they spoke against God, saying, ‘Can God spread a table in the desert?’”

As I prayed over these Scriptures, I, too, had to admit the many times I have grumbled against the Lord and how many times have I not demanded “the food” that I craved--whatever that “food” might have been: sometimes the healing of a loved one, at other times a smooth interaction with someone, still at other times that I triumph over my weakness almost miraculously without a struggle or that I find, instantaneously, that for which I am looking. And on and on and on!

How many times have I not, like Mary of Magdalen, in today’s Gospel, gone looking for something, not even Jesus, and found the “tomb” empty and when God in disguise stood before me, entered my “desert,” responded to my desperate cries, I did not recognize Him.

In what ways do these Scriptures resonate in your life?