Tuesday, XVIII Week of Ordinary Time
(Numbers 12)
Aaron and Miriam are the brother and sister of Moses. Much is written about Aaron but little about Miriam although it is likely that she had an important role in the exodus. We meet the two in the reading today griping about Moses’ wife. This seems to be a pretext, however, for a complaint that Moses is receiving all the glory while they do much of the work. They seek greater recognition for their efforts. Perhaps they feel that they will receive their due recompense when God calls all three into His presence.
God, however, has a different view of things. Moses is not only His choice for leadership but consistently shows greater virtue. Rather than consolidate power, Moses remains humble. So God chastises Miriam by inflicting her with leprosy. True to form Moses does not gloat over Miriam’s comeuppance. To the contrary, he immediately pleads to the Lord to end Miriam’s distress.
Meekness calls us to seek reconciliation among adversaries rather than standoff or subjection. It is a rare virtue in our times. Once, two couples were active leaders in Marriage Encounter. One couple judged the other as not faithfully following standard procedures. The other couple insisted they were and retreated with their following to continue doing things their way. Neither couple would give in. The former might have accepted the latter’s good intentions if not perfect compliance to somewhat arbitrary norms. The latter couple might have made more effort to adapt its ways to what was expected. Moses’ humility would have made both couples better leaders.
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