20250806 LACKING FAITH IN GOD’S WAY
07 August 2025, Thursday, 18th Week in Ordinary Time
First reading | Numbers 20:1-13 |
Moses makes water flow from the rock at Meribah
The sons of Israel, the whole community, arrived in the first month at the desert of Zin. The people settled at Kadesh. It was there that Miriam died and was buried.
There was no water for the community, and they were all united against Moses and Aaron. The people challenged Moses: ‘We would rather have died,’ they said, ‘as our brothers died before the Lord! Why did you bring the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness, only to let us die here, ourselves and our cattle? Why did you lead us out of Egypt, only to bring us to this wretched place? It is a place unfit for sowing, it has no figs, no vines, no pomegranates, and there is not even water to drink!’
Leaving the assembly, Moses and Aaron went to the door of the Tent of Meeting. They threw themselves face downward on the ground, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them. The Lord spoke to Moses and said, ‘Take the branch and call the community together, you and your brother Aaron. Then, in full view of them, order this rock to give water. You will make water flow for them out of the rock, and provide drink for the community and their cattle.’
Moses took up the branch from before the Lord, as he had directed him. Then Moses and Aaron called the assembly together in front of the rock and addressed them, ‘Listen now, you rebels. Shall we make water gush from this rock for you?’ And Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with the branch; water gushed in abundance, and the community drank and their cattle too.
Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ‘Because you did not believe that I could proclaim my holiness in the eyes of the sons of Israel, you shall not lead this assembly into the land I am giving them.’
These are the waters of Meribah, where the sons of Israel challenged the Lord and he proclaimed his holiness.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 94(95):1-2,6-9 |
O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
Come, ring out our joy to the Lord;
hail the rock who saves us.
Let us come before him, giving thanks,
with songs let us hail the Lord.
O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
Come in; let us bow and bend low;
let us kneel before the God who made us:
for he is our God and we
the people who belong to his pasture,
the flock that is led by his hand.
O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
O that today you would listen to his voice!
‘Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as on that day at Massah in the desert
when your fathers put me to the test;
when they tried me, though they saw my work.’
O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
Gospel Acclamation | Ps144:13 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
The Lord is faithful in all his words
and loving in all his deeds.
Alleluia!
Or: | Mt16:18 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
You are Peter,
and on this rock I will build my Church.
And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it.
Alleluia!
Gospel |
Matthew 16:13-23 |
You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi he put this question to his disciples, ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say he is John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ ‘But you,’ he said ‘who do you say I am?’ Then Simon Peter spoke up, ‘You are the Christ,’ he said, ‘the Son of the living God.’ Jesus replied, ‘Simon son of Jonah, you are a happy man! Because it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. So I now say to you: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church. And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven.’ Then he gave the disciples strict orders not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.
From that time Jesus began to make it clear to his disciples that he was destined to go to Jerusalem and suffer grievously at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, to be put to death and to be raised up on the third day. Then, taking him aside, Peter started to remonstrate with him. ‘Heaven preserve you, Lord;’ he said ‘this must not happen to you.’ But he turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle in my path, because the way you think is not God’s way but man’s.’
LACKING FAITH IN GOD’S WAY
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [NUM 20:1-13; PS 94:1-2,6-9, R. V.8; MT 16:13-23]
The call to trust God is not always easy. When things are going well, we can, of course, trust God. Just like the Israelites, who were euphoric after being released from the slavery of the Egyptians. But when the harsh realities of life set in, the joy of freedom turns into anger and disappointment. Although we want to trust God in our lives, we often hesitate, especially when we find ourselves in stressful situations. Our trust in God is therefore seldom total. Just as in human relationships, we have different levels of trust. Our ability to trust God, like in all human relationships, grows in strength through our encounters with the Lord, particularly in those times when we need to rely on Him and can no longer rely on ourselves or our fellowmen.
In the first reading, the sons of Israel had to learn to trust God along the way. Having taken a leap of faith by leaving Egypt and following Moses into the wilderness, they were gradually taught to place their trust in God. Indeed, they spent forty years in the desert for this purpose. God wanted to strengthened them in their faith and also to prepare them militarily to withstand their enemies, as well as to shield them from the influence of the Canaanite religion and its idolatrous practices.
In this instance, it was their frustration in the desert. Although they had suffered abuse and discrimination in Egypt and had to work very hard, at least they had food. In the desert, where there was no possibility for agriculture and shortage of water, and where they had to endure the harsh temperatures – extreme heat in the day and cold by night – they began to regret leaving Egypt. Naturally, they needed someone to blame for their plight. So, “they were all united against Moses and Aaron. The people challenged Moses: ‘We would rather have died.’ They said ‘as our brothers died before the Lord! Why did you bring the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness, only to let us die here, ourselves and our cattle? Why did you lead us out of Egypt, only to bring us to this wretched place? It is a place unfit for sowing, it has no figs, no vines, no pomegranates, and there is not even water to drink!'”
But it was not only the faith of the people that was shaken – even the faith of Moses and Aaron wavered. They felt so helpless. It seemed they had given up hope of helping the people, for they went “to the door of the Tent of Meeting, threw themselves face downward on the ground” in total despair. They cried out to God that they no longer knew how to deal with the people. It seemed as though there was no solution to the challenges they faced. Who could provide water in the desert? They did not realize – or forgotten – that God would be able to do it, just as He did before. Although God had already shown His might and power through signs, they, like the people, seemed to have forgotten. There is nothing that God cannot do. Moses and Aaron could have told the people to trust in the Lord, and assure them that God would provide as He always had. Instead, they gave in to despair.
Again, to prove them wrong, “The glory of the Lord appeared to them. The Lord spoke to Moses and said, ‘Take the branch and call the community together, you and your brother Aaron. Then, in full view of them, order this rock to give water. You will make water flow for them out of the rock, and provide drink for the community and their cattle.” Such is God’s power to provide for the people. He never left them without their needs. However, He did not give them more than necessary, because He wanted the people to always rely on Him, and not on themselves and their intelligence. This is why, in the gospel, Jesus told His disciples not to worry about tomorrow but to be content with what is given to us today.
The truth is, when we rely on ourselves, we begin to believe that God is no longer necessary in our lives – and we forget about Him. This is why, when God gave the people manna in the desert, they were warned not to gather more than they needed for the day, even though they were free to gather as much as they wanted. They were not allowed to hoard for the next day, so that they would live each day in total dependence on the Lord.
Apparently, Moses was also ungrateful. He was angry that the Lord had allowed him to bear the rejection and complaint of the people. So, when he was instructed to order the rock to give water, he showed his resentment and anger by lashing out at the people, saying, “Listen now, you rebels. Shall we make water gush from this rock for you?” He was also disobedient, because instead of ordering the rock to give water, “Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with the branch; water gushed in abundance, and the community drank and their cattle too.” In the way he responded to the struggles of the people, Moses was no better than them.
For this reason, the Lord reprimanded Moses and Aaron as well, because they were the leaders of the community and God had spoken to them as His friends and messengers. They had special access to God and yet they behaved as if they did not know Him. “Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ‘Because you did not believe that I could proclaim my holiness in the eyes of the sons of Israel, you shall not lead this assembly into the land I am giving them.’ These are the waters of Meribah, where the sons of Israel challenged the Lord and he proclaimed his holiness.”
In the Gospel, it is ironic that after such a great revelation to Peter – the recognition of Jesus as the Son of the Living God – and after Jesus bestowed upon him the authority to guide the Church, Peter fell almost immediately. Jesus gave Simon a new name and a new position among the Twelve, saying: “Simon son of Jonah, you are a happy man! Because it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. So I now say to you; You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church. And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven.” Yet when Jesus declared the path that lay ahead – His imminent passion, death, and resurrection – Peter could not accept God’s way. He had his own image of the Messiah and rejected the Messiah whom God had destined for the salvation of humanity. “Peter started to remonstrate with him. ‘Heaven preserve you, Lord,’ he said ‘this must not happen to you.’ But he turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me Satan! You are an obstacle in my path, because the way you think is not God’s way but man’s.'”
Indeed, like Peter, the apostles, and those before them in the Old Testament, we must be realistic about what it means to grow in faith in the Lord. We cannot expect someone to place total trust in God unless they have received a special grace. For most of us, grace comes in instalments. We grow in faith and love through our trials, difficulties, mistakes, and our sins. We must be patient with ourselves, just as God is patient with us. At any rate, when we fail to place our trust in God, we suffer the consequences – worrying over things needlessly. As the Lord said to us: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?” (Mt 6:25-27)
Faith is a journey we undertake together with our brothers and sisters. This is why it is necessary that we never travel alone. We need the Christian community to support us in our Faith. We need the Church to safeguard us with doctrines that have been tested and proven true over the centuries. We cannot presume to find faith on our own, because God works through our brothers and sisters and within the community of faith. This was true for the Israelites, and it remains true for us today. We need the community and our leaders – imperfect though they may be – to strengthen and guide us. “O that today you would listen to his voice! Harden not your hearts.”
Best Practices for Using the Daily Scripture Reflections
- Encounter God through the spirit of prayer and the scripture by reflecting and praying the Word of God daily. The purpose is to bring you to prayer and to a deeper union with the Lord on the level of the heart.
- Daily reflections when archived will lead many to accumulate all the reflections of the week and pray in one sitting. This will compromise your capacity to enter deeply into the Word of God, as the tendency is to read for knowledge rather than a prayerful reading of the Word for the purpose of developing a personal and affective relationship with the Lord.
- It is more important to pray deeply, not read widely. The current reflections of the day would be more than sufficient for anyone who wants to pray deeply and be led into an intimacy with the Lord.
Note: You may share this reflection with someone. However, please note that reflections are not archived online nor will they be available via email request.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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