Prayer for the Day
O Lord, thank You for every priest who has ever been a channel of Your grace for me; for the one who baptized me, the priest who heard my first confession and all of them since, the one who presented me with Your Body and Blood for the first time.
Thank You for the bishop who confirmed me. Thank You for the priest who witnessed my wedding vows and the one who has anointed me with the Sacrament of the Sick.
Give me the grace to speak only good about them. For it is through them that You touch me, make me whole, nourish me, and bring me to Yourself. Amen.
Reflection
Despite the Israelites’ constant (and persistent) grumbling throughout their 40 years wandering in the desert, the truth is that God was with them in a wonderfully intimate way in their desert ramblings. There is a closeness and familiarity with God that was a high point in their collective faith. God was with them as their guide and leader. He “tented” with them: the “meeting tent” was where God resided and communicated to the journeying people through Moses. Aaron and Moses went to the “meeting tent” and God appeared to them to solve the people’s thirst issues with the miraculous gush of water from a rock no less.
Moses and Aaron go to the “meeting tent” and prostrate themselves. God appears to them and tells Moses to take his staff and, with Aaron, to “order the rock to yield its waters.” The brothers go to the rock and Moses strikes the rock two times and water gushed out of the rock so the people could slake their thirst and their cattle drink.
The next words that God speaks to Moses and Aaron is a word of condemnation: “because you were not faithful to me in showing forth my sanctity before the children of Israel, you shall not lead them into the land I will give them.”
Thus Moses and his siblings, Miriam and Aaron, will not cross over into the Promised Land. The whole generation of the people led into and through the desert by the Hand of God had to pass away before the land planned for them could be occupied. The historic wandering in the desert was coming to an end and the promise of the Lord was soon to be fulfilled; but Moses and his contemporaries would not be with the people in that part of their venture. (Numbers 20:1-13)
It makes me want to consider how God is present to us today. Where or how is God “tenting” with us today? Can we open ourselves, without (or with) grumbling, and recognize the intimate relationship that God wants with us, with me? How difficult it is to give over the reins to God – Moses had to strike the rock twice; God had said to “command” water to come from the rock. How do we do likewise and in doing likewise trust in our own power instead of the wondrous privilege of acknowledging God’s beauty and wisdom working in, around and through us?
Where is the thirst in my life: a thirst that leads me to a deeper and deeper relationship with the One who slakes all thirsts? God never stops being present to us and He continues to invite us to seek Him lovingly and faithfully – the way He cares for and treats us each moment of our lives.
In the Gospel, Peter makes the stunning proclamation that Jesus is "the Christ, the Son of the living God." (Matthew 16:13-23) His dead-on clarity, Jesus says, is divinely inspired by "my heavenly Father."
Yet, shortly after, when Jesus foretells His suffering and death, Peter blurts out, "God forbid!" To this, Jesus retorts, "You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do."
First, Peter "gets it," then soon after, he doesn't "get it." The mixture of divine inspiration and human thinking is a combination that belongs not only to Peter, but to all priests.
Each ordained Catholic priest has the power to forgive sins (to bind or to loosen) (Mat 16:19, Mat 18:18, John 20:22,23) and to confect the Eucharist (Vatican Council II, Lumen Gentium, 10, 17, 26, 28; Sacrosanctum Concilium, 7; Christus Dominus, 15; Presbyterorum Ordinis, 2, 3). Yet, each priest is also a weak and sinful human being. Nonetheless, God works through imperfect human beings, including priests.
Today, on the feast of St. John Vianney, the patron of parish priests, it’s good to remember that although some priests you know may have many human faults and failings, God still works through them - to forgive, to nourish, and to guide His people –every one of us!
Yet, shortly after, when Jesus foretells His suffering and death, Peter blurts out, "God forbid!" To this, Jesus retorts, "You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do."
First, Peter "gets it," then soon after, he doesn't "get it." The mixture of divine inspiration and human thinking is a combination that belongs not only to Peter, but to all priests.
Each ordained Catholic priest has the power to forgive sins (to bind or to loosen) (Mat 16:19, Mat 18:18, John 20:22,23) and to confect the Eucharist (Vatican Council II, Lumen Gentium, 10, 17, 26, 28; Sacrosanctum Concilium, 7; Christus Dominus, 15; Presbyterorum Ordinis, 2, 3). Yet, each priest is also a weak and sinful human being. Nonetheless, God works through imperfect human beings, including priests.
Today, on the feast of St. John Vianney, the patron of parish priests, it’s good to remember that although some priests you know may have many human faults and failings, God still works through them - to forgive, to nourish, and to guide His people –every one of us!
No comments:
Post a Comment