Tuesday
of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
(Numbers
12:1-13; Matthew 14:22-36)
The
significance of today’s gospel is well-known.
The disciples’ boat without Jesus represents the Church after Jesus’
resurrection. The storm is the problems of heresy and persecution that the Church has endured to this day. The disciples call out in fear, and Jesus walking on the
water comes to their rescue. The first
reading, not as well understood but equally dramatic as the gospel, calls for
more attention.
Aaron and
Miriam have two criticisms of Moses. The
first is that he married a non-Israelite, which is forbidden in the Book of
Deuteronomy. The second is that they too are prophets, but only Moses has the
people’s full confidence. God
adjudicates the gripes. Moses is no
ordinary Israelite or prophet. Rather he
has a special relationship with the Lord.
As the meekest person on earth, he speaks to God, as it were,
“face-to-face.” This unique relationship
allows him to marry a Cushite woman and to have precedence over other prophets.
Now let us
return to Jesus. He like Moses has a
special relationship with God. But he
claims no special privilege for it.
Indeed, his Sonship has made him the only human who could atone for
sin. To do this he must lower himself,
first by taking on human flesh with (how did Hamlet put it?) the need “to
suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”. Second, he gives himself to outrage, contempt
and cruel death. As truly the meekest person who has ever lived, we, like Peter, cling
to him. He not only gains for us forgiveness of sin but also the promise of
eternal life.
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