Numbers 21:4-9; Ps 102 O Lord hear my prayer and let my cry come to youJohn 8:21-30
The first reading today describes the people of Israel in the desert., "But with their patience worn out by the journey, the people complained against God and Moses."
In their patience running thread bear the people turn negative and pessimistic.
This reality is not reserved for the people in the desert; it happens to us all the time.
We too must check ourselves against pessimism and negative thinking, for this certainly seeks to destroy faith.
What is patience? Patience is the ability to sit back and recognize the bigger picture. Within that bigger picture we discern how to act and when to act. Patience isn't about being passive but rather it is very active and intentional.
But the first prerequisite is the ability to see beyond our own nose, look beyond ourself.
To see the bigger picture is to allow the plan of God unfold. Here we learn to trust, here we learn loving the Lord.
The people of Israel failed to see the big picture, the greater plan of God. THus, they were unable to wait on the Lord.
St Jose maria Escriva instructs us to develop that virtue of holy stubbornness. How is that for a concept. We can all be stubborn certainly but what of holy stubbornness, where we refuse to take matters into our own hands and we wait on the Lord without keeping him waiting.
St Jose Maria Escriva also instructs us, "Be clever, spiritually clever. Don't wait for the Lord to send you set backs; go out to meet them with a spirit of voluntary atonement. Then you will receive them with love- a word that is forever young.
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