TESTING JESUS’ PATIENCE
Most,
if not all of us, experience being pushed to our limits, especially
when it comes to our patience. At some point in our lives, we reach the
boiling point and almost always we end up dismayed and blowing our top.
That is the situation expressed by the prophet Micah in our First
Reading today. The Lord makes an impassioned plea to Israel: “O my
people, what have I done to you, or how have I wearied you? Answer me!”
A similar exasperation is also found in Jesus in today’s Gospel. Some
scribes and Pharisees ask Him for a sign to validate His preaching. He
replies to them, “An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign, but no
sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah the prophet.”
In an effort to assuage the Lord for the dismay the Israelites have
caused Him, they ask, “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow
before God most high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with
calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with myriad streams of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my crime, the
fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
God’s answer is very compelling. “You have been told, O man, what is
good, and what the Lord requires of you: Only to do right and to love
goodness, and to walk humbly with your God.”
Jesus echoes the same thought. By citing examples from Israel’s past,
He pleads for a greater faith and acceptance, for more openness and
humility, for greater righteousness and moral consistency. People before
have responded positively to the preaching of Jonah and to the wisdom
of Solomon; why do they now respond negatively to Him who is greater
than either Solomon or Jonah?
Hopefully we won’t push Jesus to His limit or make Him blow His top. Fr. Martin Macasaet, SDB
REFLECTION QUESTION: In what ways do you think you are testing Jesus’ patience?
Lord,
forgive me for the times I have tested Your patience — in how I pray,
in how I sin again and again, in how I run away from You.
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