HOMILY FOR 18TH TUESDAY OF THE ORDINARY TIME — YEAR A
HOMILY FOR 18TH TUESDAY OF THE ORDINARY TIME — YEAR A
HOMILY THEME: UNNECESSARY CRITICISM AND JEALOUSY
BY: Fr. Paul Karabari
‘Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?’ And the Lord heard it.’
In the First Reading (Numbers 12:1-13), when Miriam criticised her brother Moses because of the wife he chose, God gave her leprosy. What did Miriam do wrong? It started with her and Aaron making fun of Moses’ foreign wife, but it seems that this wasn’t even her actual problem: ‘Has the Lord spoken only through Moses? they asked. ‘Hasn’t he also spoken through us?’ (Numbers 12:2). Her real issue was jealousy. She wanted just as much recognition and honour as her little brother. She wasn’t happy with the role that God had given her, and that led her to greed. I have always said so many of us find it really hard to handle the success stories of others. And unless we begin to see the joy of others as an extension of our own joy and rejoice with them, it will always be difficult to be part of that joy. Funny enough, if you develop the habit of getting angry at people for their happiness, you can hardly live a happy life.
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When other people around us succeed, it can be easy to think: ‘Hey! I’m just as good as them. Maybe even better. It should be me standing at the front, getting some praise.’ You might really be better, but God knows what He does. Aaron and Miriam might not have realised it when they had their anti-Moses-moan, but they had ended up setting themselves against God. The Bible says, ‘Who are you to judge your neighbour’ (James 4:12). When Aaron realised what he had done (God turning some negative attention toward Miriam certainly helped him learn), there was no wriggling out of it, he confessed straight away. ‘We have done foolishly and have sinned’ (Numbers 12:11).
Aaron did the smart thing of recognising what he had been doing and repenting of it quickly.
Could he have done otherwise? Could Aaron have said, ‘Fine then! I’m off’? Maybe, but he would certainly have been saying goodbye to his relationship with God, too. Aaron recognised that not only did he want that clean-slate forgiveness with God for his future, but he realised just how much he had been damaging it previously.
How do we learn from his mistake, then? Oswald Chambers wrote, ‘Whenever you are in a critical temper, it’s impossible to enter into communion with God.’ So, when we are tempted to get negatively critical, it’s time to slam on the brakes and check in with God: ‘Lord, how do you see this situation? Can you give me the grace to be as loving to this person as you are to me?’ Let us drop unnecessary criticism and jealousy and pray for some more of that blessing instead. Rejoice with those who are blessed and rejoicing, and you will be blessed and rejoice. GOD IS STILL ON THE THRONE. May God have mercy on us, heal our country, Nigeria, bless and protect us all through Christ, our Lord Amen.
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