18th Week, Tuesday, August 3
Numbers 12:1-13 / Matthew 15:1-2, 12-14
Aaron and Miriam envy Moses; "Doesn't God speak through us also?"
Some time ago Ann Landers printed an anonymous poem in her column. An excerpt from it reads: "When you're feeling so important and your ego is in bloom, when you simply take for granted, you're the wisest in the room …. just follow these instructions. They will humble your soul. "Take a bucket of water. Put your hand in to the wrist; Pull it out, the hole remaining is how much you'll be missed. The moral of the story is do the best you can. Be proud, but please remember, There's no indispensable person."
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Are we like Aaron and Miriam? Are we too concerned with our own importance? Do we envy God's gifts to other people? "A mountain shames a molehill until they are both humbled by the stars." Old adage
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Nowhere is dissatisfaction, discontent and grumbling, more damaging than in the family. There will be remarks that are meant to hurt. So here Miriam and Aaron speak of Zipporah, the wife of Moses, contemptuously. They call her a Cushite. Actually, it means only an Ethiopian, which she was not. In the time it was spoken it could be translated as "that nigger woman of yours". It was meant to be poisonous. That hurts. Miriam had actually been a great help to Moses. She had saved his life when he was a baby. She supported him. Her victory song was still used by the people. They did the best thing. They took their difficulties before the Lord. She was punished with leprosy: The fitting, disfiguring punishment. Moses prayed for her. God cured her, but till they moved on in their march, she had to live outside the camp as any leper would. The ideal home, the sweet home is "Where there never was said a discouraging word".
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Envy and jealousy are what we feel in our hearts whenever we feel inferior to another person. As it is, envy and jealousy already contort and distort our actions and behaviour. In the spoken form, it comes out as criticism and moral judgement. In the 1st reading, we heard how Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses in connection to his marriage with a Cushite woman. There was really nothing wrong with that, but the real reason was that they were envious and jealous of Moses and they used a trivial matter to express it. So what they said merely expressed the envy and jealousy that were biting away in their hearts.
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As what Jesus said in the gospel, what goes into the mouth does not make a man unclean. Rather it is what comes out of the mouth that really shows the state of the heart. Hence, in our examination of conscience, it is necessary to recollect and reflect on the words that have come out of our mouths. By our own words, we will know what is in our hearts.
May we offer our hearts to the Lord to be cleansed and healed so that our hearts will be where the Lord makes His home and that we will speak only words of love.
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They had learnt their lesson. One other lesson they were taught. When the difficulties and needs are the greatest, God is closest. we are in his hands, he guards us. As long as we look only at the difficulties, we sink. When we have confidence, we ask: bid me come to you.
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Prayer
Father, God of the everlasting covenant, you have tied us to yourself with leading strings of lasting love; the words you speak to us are spirit and life. Open our hearts to your word, that they may touch us in the deepest of ourselves. May they move us to serve you not in a slavish way, but as your sons and daughters who love you and whom you have set free through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
