Numbers 11:4-15 / Matthew 14:13-21 (2019)
We often hear this phrase: A hungry person is an angry person.
Quite true, hunger has that ability to diminish our rationale and even contort our spirituality, so much so that we can even end up doing something crazy and stupid.
But being grumpy is another story altogether.
We can be grumpy not because we are hungry, but because we are fussy.
In the 1st reading, we heard how the Israelites began to be grumpy, not because they were hungry but because they were tired of eating manna, day in day out.
And their complaints burdened Moses to the extent that he in turn complained to the Lord.
But what Moses felt about the people's complaints was a much lesser intensity about how Jesus felt over the execution of John the Baptist.
For Jesus, it was a personal tragedy, it was a time to drop everything and spend some time in great grief.
But when people came to Him with their needs, He put aside His grief and even took pity on them and healed their sick.
Moses was burdened by the people's complaints. Jesus was grieved over the death of John the Baptist.
We have experienced both kinds of situations before.
How did we react before? And how would we react in the future?
We can continue to complain about our burdens and be grumpy about things that didn't go right.
Or like Jesus, we will trust in God's grace to turn burdens into blessings, and help others to do likewise.