August 3, 2011
Wednesday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
By Colleen O’Sullivan
The Lord said 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. Tell them: By my life, says the Lord, I will do to you just what I have heard you say. Here in the desert shall your dead bodies fall. Forty days you spent in scouting the land; forty years shall you suffer for your crimes: one year for each day. Thus you will realize what it means to oppose me.” (Numbers 14:26-29a, 34)
Piety
Why are known hells preferred to unknown heavens?
(Sam Keen, To a Dancing God)
Study
When we look at the Israelites in today’s reading from the Book of Numbers, there seems to be an uncanny resemblance between them and us. Here they are, tired from the journey, literally right on the edge of the land God has promised them, yet they refuse to take the next step. They’re scared. They’ve heard that while it’s truly a land flowing with milk and honey, it’s also a land inhabited by fierce giants. Oh, no, Lord, we’re not taking the chance! In fact, they go one step further and begin to wail and grumble against their God.
Don’t we sometimes find ourselves in the same place? God leads us on our spiritual journeys, always asking and coaxing us to grow just a little more, to take that next step. Maybe it’s to move out of our comfort zone and try some new type of ministry. Perhaps the Lord’s asking us to let go of some painful, inner hurt or to forgive someone who’s wronged us. And just when we’re on the threshold of moving forward, doubts and fears assail us.
Whether we’re talking about the ancient Israelites or ourselves, how short our memories are. We forget that our God is the One who called us forth into being, saved us from slavery and sin, and gives us sustenance for our journeys. Every time the Israelites meet up with challenges in the desert, they cast aside all memories of God’s blessings. They show themselves to be ungrateful and refuse to trust in God to be their mainstay. They not only don’t desire to move forward; they wish they could go back.
We should be careful what we wish for, though, because sometimes God grants our wishes and allows us to stay right where we are. For the Israelites that means another forty years in the wilderness before entering the Promised Land. In fact, it will be the next generation who possesses the land.
Action
When you reflect on your faith journey, in what ways do you feel God calling you to move ahead? What fears are holding you back? What might you miss out on if God responded to your fears by allowing you to stay right where you are?
