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Two Rocks- that\u2019s what today\u2019s scriptures are about.<\/p>\n
Now I am certain that most of you have heard the first reading many times and wondered at its meaning.\u00a0 Just how did the Moses and the Israelis test the Lord and His sanctity?\u00a0 Well, first notice that the Isaraelis grumbled to themselves over lack of water, not trusting in the Lord.\u00a0 So they went to Moses and Aaron to complain.\u00a0 Moses and Aaron, feeling faint of heart themselves, appeal to the Lord for help.\u00a0 All of that demonstrates lack of faith and trust.\u00a0 But the Lord tells Moses to take his famous staff out of the Ark where it was kept.\u00a0 He was then to assemble the people and in their presence, order water to flow out of the rock.\u00a0 Now the staff symbolized the power and sanctity of the Lord.\u00a0 When Moses just held the staff, great things happened- like the parting of the Red Sea and victory in battle. \u00a0So, Moses was supposed to just hold it, not strike the rock.\u00a0 That should have brought it all back to the Israelis- that this staff symbolized the power of an invincible God; it should have renewed their faith.\u00a0 But as you can see, Moses spoke tentatively and impatiently in the presence of the people at the rock- not with faith, and so not with authority he was given.\u00a0 And yet, despite their lack of faith and mistrust, God in his goodness caused water to gush from the rock.\u00a0 Because Moses did not handle the situation properly, he and Aaron were punished.<\/p>\n
In the Gospel, Jesus is asking a central question of faith.\u00a0 Have his disciples, by this time in his ministry to them, been moved in their hearts to know who he really is? \u00a0\u00a0Do they believe, do they have faith in him?\u00a0 Some dance around the issue, saying he is a prophet.\u00a0 But Simon Peter comes up with the answer Jesus is looking for- that Jesus is the Messiah. \u00a0And so Jesus renames Simon to Peter, which means Rock and says that on that Rock he will build his Church.\u00a0 Indeed, Peter went out and Baptized and spread the Gospel.\u00a0 Peter had faith and acted on it despite many trials and tribulations and that\u2019s how the Church was built.<\/p>\n
Every day of our lives, we are confronted with challenges that test our faith.\u00a0 Sometimes we feel like we are in the desert, and don\u2019t know where to turn.\u00a0 So we cry out to God like the Israelis did.\u00a0 And in the midst of that challenge, it is like God is asking us first if we know who He is.\u00a0 Do we act tentatively and without trust as Moses and some of the Apostles did, or do we speak out with confidence as Peter did?<\/p>\n
Real Faith is a strong conviction that we know that Jesus is real; He did save us; He is in that Eucharist.\u00a0 There is no doubt in real faith.\u00a0 We need only hold the staff- we don\u2019t have to strike the rock with it, let alone strike the rock twice.\u00a0 Rather if we really believe in our hearts, we know that our prayer will be answered.\u00a0 It may be that it is like water gushing from a rock, rather than a green fertile valley along a wide stream.\u00a0 In other words, our answer may not be the vision we had in mind, but one way or another, our prayer will be answered.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s time we tried it, don\u2019t you think?\u00a0 So, if today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thursday of the 18th Week in Ordinary Time Num 20: 1-13; Mt 16: 13-23 Dc. Larry Brockman Two Rocks- that\u2019s what today\u2019s scriptures are about. Now I am certain that most of you have heard the first reading many times and wondered at its meaning.\u00a0 Just how did the Moses and the Israelis test the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[14],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=362"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":363,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362\/revisions\/363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}