Jan 13: Every Moment is a Call to Growth in the Spirit

Jean Tassel (1608-67): Moses Strikes the Rock for Water
Bredius Museum, The Hague

Thursday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

Reading I: Heb 3:7-14

“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, as on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your ancestors put me to the test, though they had seen my works for forty years (NRSV, Heb 3:7b-10a).”

Father, there is one gift that you give to us in every situation that always empowers us to be victor. It is the very gift that you gave us at the first moment in our mother’s womb when, through your Word spoken to us, you called us into existence. That first gift was your Holy Spirit that enabled us to become human beings and sharers in your own divine life. In every moment you challenge us to grow in that Spirit.

In the midst of all of life’s difficulties, in every situation however oppressive, Father, you invite us to grow in the Holy Spirit through your Word who is always present to us. Growth in the Spirit, moving forward towards new life, is the challenge that you lay down for us whatever our plight.

When your people were in slavery in Egypt, you did not rescue them from their subjugation. Rather, you called them forth out of their oppression in the power of your Spirit. You called them through the sea to freedom and you lead them across the desert in columns of cloud and of fire.

But the people finally lost their nerve and could say “yes” to your call no longer. “Why have you led us into this desert, where there is no water and no food and we are far worse off than when we were slaves in Egypt?”

The story tells us that you did give your people to drink and you did feed them in the desert but the people had rebelled and said “no” to your call and to their future. Everyone who came out of Egypt, Moses and Aaron with them, died there in the wasteland without ever reaching the land which they understood as their future, all because of their unbelief and rebelliousness.

Father, you did not rescue your people from Egypt, nor from the desert where they died in their rebellion against you. You did not even rescue your Son Jesus from the Cross. Nor do you ever rescue us however heavy our burden and oppressive our plight. But, as you led your people out of slavery in Egypt to freedom and as Jesus triumphed over suffering and physical death on the Cross, so in every moment, no matter what it is that we ask for, what you offer us always is growth in your Holy Spirit that with Jesus we too may be victors in all of life’s situations.

Alleluia. Amen.