Word to the Wise
Monday, August 5, 2013 - Monday in the 18th Week in Ordinary Time
[Num 11:4b-15 and Matt 14:13-21 or, in Year A, Matt 14:22-36,1031]"Why do you treat your servant so badly?" Moses asked the Lord. "Why are you so displeased with me that you burden me with all this people?"
St. Teresa of Avila is quoted as saying to God one time when things were not going well: "If this is the way you treat your friends, it's no wonder you have so few!" And I confess, being and having been a religious superior, that I have spoken as Moses speaks in the quotation from today's first scripture from the Book of Numbers! I could call it "the Prior's lament!"
A wise old Dominican friar once advised me, "If they can't find anything else to complain about, they'll complain about the food!" That is the complaint that sets Moses off in an exasperated temper. The children of Israel forget their former slavery because they don't like their present diet in the desert! They have lost perspective! Moses also has a problem in assuming that God wants him to do everything! God tells him to start delegating! [Now that's a lesson I learned a long time ago! But I still complain about the job to God once in awhile!]
Keep a sense of perspective and don't try to do everything yourself! God's Word offers wise advise today. We will be wise to listen and do! AMEN