When we are disgusted, weary, and frustrated

As we strive to continue on our Lenten journey in our practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, we view the weariness of the Israelites—and their despair—in today’s first reading.

In their physical exhaustion from the journey, they become frustrated, and challenge God: “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert, where there is no food or water?  We are disgusted with this wretched food.”

Well, they may have deemed the food wretched, but God was still giving them enough to stay alive, and carry on.

Do we, when things are not going our way, struggle with the temptation to lose faith, to feel that all is lost, to blame God?

If so, let us cry out with the Psalmist today, “Oh, Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to You.”

In faith, we know that the Lord always answers—in the ways and timing that is best for us! And here again, we must resist the temptation to think we know better than God.

Let us see the folly of the Pharisees in today’s Gospel. When Jesus says, “Where I am going you cannot come,” they reply, “He is not going to kill himself, is he?”

No, Pharisees, you are going to kill Him!

Our loving Lord foresees His live-giving death for us:

“When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me. The one who sent me is with me.

He has not left me alone, because I always do what pleases him.

Jesus will never leave us alone.  May we bravely march ahead with him, always seeking to do what pleases the Father.

Zip Rzeppa, founder and executive director of Mater Media, matermedia.org