The Church celebrates the feast day of St. Clare (1194-1253) of Assisi today. If Assisi reminds you of St. Francis, you are perfectly right. St. Clare was a contemporary of St. Francis (1181-1226) who left us with a Canticle of Brother Sun and Sister Moon. This prayer of St. Francis' inspired the movie "Brother Sun, Sister Moon" released in 1972, depicting the life of St. Francis and St. Clare together. Both of them followed the gospel spirit of poverty literally and led a heroic life of renunciation of worldliness. Nowadays, not many religious orders can follow their footsteps of leading a beggar's life. Still, we should uphold this spirit of total dependence on God whatever our life station may be.
It seems to be a human instinct to struggle once one is thrown into an alien situation, say the water. Babies seem to retain their memory of living inside a placenta of fluid. When they are thrown into a swimming pool, very naturally they will start swimming and diving. However, for most grown-ups, when they fall into the water, they will instinctively struggle to keep their heads above the water to breathe with their nose! The experience of security on land has overwritten the watery experience inside the mother's womb.
Exodus was a good opportunity for the Israelites to learn total reliance on God. However, like grown-ups who fall into the water for the first time, the Israelites were scared and struggled on their own. They had forgotten to rely on God because of their experience of security and comfort in Egypt. When they crossed the Red Sea between two walls of water, which they had never seen before in their life in Egypt, I am afraid not many of them knew that God parted the waters to help them flee to safety. When they collected manna and quails, many of them probably thought that life in the wilderness should be like this. They might not know that God was feeding them. When Moses disappeared for forty days in the mountain to get the Ten Commandments, of course they would panic and demanded a new leader. It was Aaron's fault to make them a golden calf to lead the Israelites. Aaron never admitted this mistake in front of Moses. Based on their experience of a comfortable and secure life in Egypt, it was only natural for the Israelites to behave the way they did in the wilderness. If they persisted and did not learn to put their faith in God, their future life in the Promised Land would soon be corrupted. Therefore, I do not blame God for His decision to "exile" the Israelites in the wilderness for forty years to cleanse up the older generation which preferred the comfortable Egyptian way of life.
We are approaching the end of Deuteronomy. Moses was 120. He would not cross Jordan. He was giving his advice for the last time to the Israelites.
And he said to them, "I am a hundred and twenty years old this day; I am no longer able to go out and come in. The LORD has said to me, 'You shall not go over this Jordan.'
The LORD your God himself will go over before you; he will destroy these nations before you, so that you shall dispossess them; and Joshua will go over at your head, as the LORD has spoken (Deuteronomy 31:2-3).
Moses was addressing the newer generation. The older one had probably all died out. Forty years ago in the wilderness of Paran, just before entering the Promised Land, the Israelites lost their faith in God after hearing evil reports from the spies (Numbers 13). God "exiled" them for forty years before entering the Promised Land. Forty years ago in Meribath, Moses lost favour before God because he struck the rock instead of telling the rock to give water. Moses would die outside the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 32:51-52). Such were the prices the Israelites had to pay because they did not put their faith in Yahweh. Moses urged them to rely on God because he was worried that after his death, they would relapse to their former selves, instinctively relying on themselves, on more tangible things. They did not have the benefit of witnessing the lives of St. Clare and St. Francis which might serve to remind them that reliance on God can be realistic.
Dear Lord, we have spent life relying on material things for too long. It has become a bad habit on our part. I pray that with the intercession of all the saints in the heavenly court, we may lead a life of obedience and submission to You. Amen.
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