18th Week, Monday, August 7
Numbers 11:4-15 / Matthew 14:13-21
Moses prays to God; "1 can't carry this burden any longer.
A woman had a heavy cross to carry in this life. One day she went to St. Peter and said, "I can't carry this heavy cross any longer." Peter looked at the cross and said, "It's possible someone made a mistake. What's the serial number of your cross?" The woman said, "002003." Peter wrote the number in a book and said, "Put the cross over there and see if you can find another that fits you better." Two hours later the woman returned to Peter. With a big smile on her face she said, "I think I've found just the right one." "Good!" said St. Peter. "What's the serial number?" The woman said, "Let's see. It says 002003." Peter said, "Why, that's the same one you came in with!"
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Do we believe God knows what's best for us? Recall these words of God to Paul: "My grace is sufficient for you." 2 Corinthians 12:9
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The first reading in the 18th and the 19th weeks is taken from the books of Numbers and Deuteronomy. It describes the journey of God’s people through the desert, with the trials of the difficult journey, the temptations of discouragement, lack of faith and trust, material and materialistic needs, infidelities, complaints. We have to learn to place them in the context of our own itinerary through life as Christians, our own deserts with temptations, difficulties and grumbling.
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We know that an immense number of people in many places of the world have not enough to eat today. Many others have plenty to eat, and yet they are hungry, for people do not live on bread alone: they are in need of peace and love, they hunger for justice and appreciation; they are in need of God. We, Jesus’ disciples today, cannot remain indifferent to these hungers, for Jesus has told us: “Give them something to eat yourselves.” If we share the little that we have, the kingdom of God is among us.
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We often hear this phrase: A hungry person is an angry person. Quite true, hunger has that ability to diminish our rationale and even contort our spirituality, so much so that we can even end up doing something crazy and stupid. But being grumpy is another story altogether. We can be grumpy not because we are hungry, but because we are fussy.
In the 1st reading, we heard how the Israelites began to be grumpy, not because they were hungry but because they were tired of eating manna, day in day out. And their complaints burdened Moses to the extent that he in turn complained to the Lord. But what Moses felt about the people's complaints was a much lesser intensity about how Jesus felt over the execution of John the Baptist.
For Jesus, it was a personal tragedy, it was a time to drop everything and spend some time in great grief. But when people came to Him with their needs, He put aside His grief and even took pity on them and healed their sick.
Moses was burdened by the people's complaints. Jesus was grieved over the death of John the Baptist. We have experienced both kinds of situations before.
How did we react before? And how would we react in the future? We can continue to complain about our burdens and be grumpy about things that didn't go right. Or like Jesus, we will trust in God's grace to turn burdens into blessings and help others to do likewise.
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Prayer
God, our compassionate Father, you let your Son Jesus Christ give food to all who are hungry in any way. Make us compassionate for all the poor of our day. Teach us to see their needs, to suffer with them, to share in their anguish, to bind their wounds and to appease their hungers. Give us the strength to do all this by the strength of the food of himself that Jesus gives us in each eucharist. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen
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Feast Day August 7
In 257, when Sixtus became pope, being a Christian had suddenly become dangerous. For a while, Emperor Valerius had been appreciative of Christians, and many of his high officials were Christians. But suddenly he accused Christians of being enemies of the government. In the midst of this, Pope Sixtus struggled for a year to guide the Church through many difficulties, some dealing with false teachers, some with Baptism.
Christians in Rome gathered for the Eucharist in the catacombs—damp, dark tunnels used as underground cemeteries. They would change the location or time of their celebrations to try to keep from being found. One day during Mass in the catacombs, Valerius’s soldiers appeared. In view of the community, the soldiers beheaded Sixtus and four deacons who were assisting him. The men were killed simply because they were Christians.
