Bad Day for Moses

Monday, August 01
Numbers 11:4b-15 (Bad Day for Moses)

“Why do you treat your servant so badly?”  Moses asked the Lord.  Why are you so displeased with me that you burden me with all this people?...If this is the way you will deal with me, then please do me the favor of killing me at once, so that I need no longer face this distress.”  Moses was having a very bad day!  What can be worse than having to listen to peevish wining?  The people have miraculous bread to eat and they want garlic and cucumbers!  Who of us has not felt like Moses?  I can’t handle this!  It’s too much!  I’d rather die!  Why me?  Moses had the good sense to turn to prayer.  At a later time the psalmist would do the same:  Hear my voice O God as I complain!  And still later Jesus Himself would say, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass… but not my will but Yours be done!”  The saints also knew how to “cast their care on the Lord”.  When St. Clare faced a horde of Moslem soldiers overrunning her monastery, she prostrated herself before the Blessed Sacrament and prayed, “Behold, my Lord, do You wish to deliver into the hands of pagans Your defenseless servants whom You have nourished with Your own love?  Lord, I beg You, defend these Your servants whom I am not able to defend at this time.”  A bold prayer that merited a swift response, “I will always take care of you”.  The soldiers immediately were seized with fear and fled.  God has always taken care of the Poor Clares.  Not that He has spared them every suffering.  Other monasteries have been ravaged and there are martyrs among the saints of the Order.  Neither did the Father take the cup of pain away from His Divine Son until He had drained it.  But the prayer of complaint is always answered when it is made in faith, hope and love.  God either relieves the suffering or He supports the sufferer until he is raised to new life.  So let us too “cast our care upon the Lord” for He cares for us.