The children of Israel said to them, "Would that we had died at the LORD's hand in the land of Egypt, as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread! But you had to lead us into this desert to make the whole community die of famine!"
Because I am still trying to finish my formal education, I have lately been reading the letters and stories of Flannery O'Connor. There is little romance in her writing and, seemingly, in her disposition. Anyone who likes peacocks enough to raise them has gotten well beyond romantic illusions. She surely recognized the grumbling of the children of Israel in the desert of Sin. She would not be at all surprised by the discontent of people who should be grateful.
We have these weird notions about people. Parents think their children will love them and be grateful and never take them for granted. But they don't, and aren't, and they do. People think the wealthy must be happy in their security, and they enjoy neither. People who give to the poor think the poor should be happy for what they get, and they're not. They only want more. Children think their parents have it easy because they're not in school, and they don't. People believe if they really saw a miracle they would absolutely believe in God. Nope. It doesn't work that way.
No sooner had the Hebrews escaped the Egyptian army by a miraculous passage through the Red Sea than they were complaining that God and his prophet Moses had brought them all this way to die of thirst and famine. Because they cannot imagine what God will do next, they assume he has no plan whatsoever, unless its to leave them stranded.
There really is no point in God's doing Wonderful Works if we're not willing, able or ready to see them. We're like the duffer who expects to beat Tiger Wood in golf if his luck holds. Without talent, dedication, and many hours of intense study and practice, luck doesn't happen. The best golfers have created and "own" a very small window where good things happens. Within that space the ball stops within inches of the cup, and sometimes drops into it.
Faith is like that. If you can hear the march of the saints and the songs of the angels and the Mercy of God in the Sunday Mass, even when a third of the congregation comes late and another third leaves early, and the children are puling, and the teens are passing notes, and the priest's "brief homily" goes on for twenty minutes, you will see God's wonderful works in every direction.
Flannery O'Connor saw God's image in the characters who appear in her writing. Some of them are dreadful; some are nasty; all are restless until they rest in God.
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I love to write. This blog helps me to meditate on the Word of God, and I hope to make some contribution to our contemplations of God's Mighty Works.
Ordinarily, I write these reflections two or three weeks in advance of their publication. I do not intend to comment on current events.
I understand many people prefer gender-neutral references to "God." I don't disagree with them but find that language impersonal, unappealing and tasteless. When I refer to "God" I think of the One whom Jesus called "Abba" and "Father", and I would not attempt to improve on Jesus' language.
You're welcome to add a thought or raise a question.