Lec
# 28- 3rd Sun of Lent- March 23, 2014- Fr. Bresowar
My
brothers and sisters in Christ,
Recently
I saw a video on Youtube, on the internet, in which I posted to Facebook, the video was entitled FWP.
FWP
stands for “first-world-problems.” And in the video it starts off by saying
that every day in the world, thousands of people fall victim to FWP, or first
world problems.
Then
it proceeds to have actors act out some of these problems.
The
first was a woman who was acting like she was freezing to death because someone
had moved the thermostat from 73 degrees all the way down to 72 degrees and she
needed it to be 73 degrees.
The
next was a man who was lying on the floor next to the refrigerator starving to
death because all that was in the fridge was leftovers.
Then
a young man was acting depressed on his computer because no one liked his
status update on Facebook.
Next
a man said, “I have too much chips for my dip, but if I open my dip, I’ll have
too much dip for my chips.”
And
finally, last but not least, a young man was shown kneeling down in the parking
lot of his apartment complex in utter despair because he brought too many
groceries and now he is going to have to make two trips instead of one.
The
video was obviously poking fun at people complaining over problems that aren’t
really problems and yet were acting like these issues were the end of the world.
It
was funny to watch and yet at the same time it was thought provoking.
Living
here in this country, where we have most of our needs easily met, we often too,
fall victim to first-world-problems.
Little
inconveniences, which if we were in a third-world-country, we would be
embarrassed to even bring up, often times are at the forefront of our
complaints.
Complaining
is something that is easy to do, and yet it can also become a very serious
problem.
Not
that complaining is all the time a bad thing. Sometimes we have real issues,
and we need to have someone listen to our complaints. This can be a healthy
outlet. Sometimes!
But
if complaining becomes our mode of operation, if we become complainers, over
every little thing, and aren’t able to put our complaints into proper context,
then we run the risk of becoming cynical or jaded people.
People
who can’t seem to see the bigger picture or, are worse, not thankful for what
they have.
In
the first reading, we hear the story of the Israelites complaining in the
desert because Moses, through God’s hand, had liberated them from slavery, but
had brought them into the desert where the conditions were harsh.
They
had wanted to be liberated, remember they were complaining about being
enslaved, and once they were freed, they started complaining again.
How
easy it was for them to forget what God had done for them!
In
a lot of ways, people haven’t changed much since then. It’s easy to complain.
That’s a human condition. We want what we want, when we want it.
Of
course Moses heard their complaints and asks the Lord, “What am I going to do
with these people?”
“They
are complaining, they are angry, and I’m afraid they might kill me.”
It’s
never easy to be a leader, that’s for sure.
I’ve
learned rather quickly as a priest that you can not make everyone happy, and
trying to do so is exhaustive effort and rarely effective.
Luckily,
unlike Moses, no one has plotted or threatened to kill me. Yet!
Of
course leaders can’t remove themselves either from the list of complainers,
I’ve certainly done my share of that too.
In
seminary, our class got called out because we complained too much. We were told
to suck it up and be thankful for what we had. We made a decision as a class to
quit complaining because it was starting to effect us in a negative way. Not
only was the faculty starting to notice, but also we didn’t like who we were
becoming.
Constant
complaining can turn people very negative, or pessimistic.
So
Moses goes back to God and asks him what he is suppose to do, and God provides
for them in a miraculous way, water from a rock.
Jesus,
in the gospel, is exhausted and goes to the well in the middle of the day. He
doesn’t even go with his own bucket, but finds the Samaritan woman there all
alone. Oddly, she was by herself, which would not have been the norm, except
that she had likely been rejected by the other women.
Jesus
asks for water, which astounds her because Jesus is a Jew and she is a
Samaritan.
However,
Jesus doesn’t respond to her admission but instead offers her something better.
“If you knew
the gift of God
and who is
saying to you, ‘Give me a drink, ‘
you would have
asked him
and he would
have given you living water.”
But she didn’t
understand, she wanted to never have to have earthly thirst again. She didn’t
want to have to keep coming back to the well, so she asks him to give her some
of this living water.
She didn’t
understand what it was God was trying to give her.
In a way, she
represents each of us. How often are we looking only to have our earthly needs
met, like the people with FWP, or the Israelites in the desert, of the woman at
the well?
How often are we
blind to what it is Jesus is truly offering us?
Like the
Israelites in the desert, we need to learn to be more thankful for what we
have, and also to learn to desire the gifts that give eternal life.
We need to
recognize finally, like the Samaritan woman did, who it is that is speaking to
us and calling us to Himself, and what it is He is offering to give us.
Much more than
fulfilling our earthly desires, which are constantly changing, Jesus is going
to give us fulfillment which never ends. All we need to do is seek it out above
earthly desires.
Once we are
able to do this, once we are able to move beyond our simple complaints and
rejoice because we recognize what God is truly offering us, then we become
different people. We become bold, triumphant, happy, fulfilled, not because
things worked out the way we thought they should here, but because we realize
finally, that the only place we ever could be fulfilled in the first place was
Jesus Christ.
May God Bless
you as you continue your Lenten journey and may we all learn in the desert of
Suffering to be thankful and depend only on the living Water, grace, which
comes forth from the Rock who is Jesus Christ.
