Feast of St. John Vianney

Today, the Catholic Church celebrates the feast day of a simple parish priest, St. John Vianney. He is the patron saint of parish priests and Pope Benedict XVI, in celebration of the 150^th anniversary of the death of this great saint, declares this year to be the Year for Priests. Priesthood in the Catholic Church faces tremendous challenges both inside and outside the Church. There is not enough saintly new blood to help the Church to face rapid changes in this new age. St. Vianney knew such a need very well. He is the best person to pray for us.

Today, we read of a rebellion within the leadership of the Israelites. To a certain extent, such a rebellion is a feature commonly found in any power structure, such as the Church. The story begins with an insignificant excuse.
Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman (Numbers 12:1).
Who was Miriam?
She was the elder sister of Moses. Most likely she was the protector of baby Moses (Exodus 2:4).
After God had drowned the Egyptian army in the Red Sea, Moses led the Israelites to sing a new song of victory.
Then Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and dancing (Exodus 15:20).
She seemed to have taken up the role of a leader among the Israelite women and led them to refrain the victory song after Moses.
Micah, the prophet affirmed her leadership.
For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and redeemed you from the house of bondage; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam (Micah 6:4).
They were brothers and sister. We would expect their leadership to be seamless. However, the next thing we know from the Pentateuch was her rebellion against Moses! How ironic!

From Exodus, we learn that Moses married Zipporah, the daughter of a Midian priest (Exodus 2:16-21). Was Zipporah the Cushite woman? We don't know. But this Cushite woman was only an excuse because the real issue was immediately revealed.
and they said, "Has the LORD indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?" And the LORD heard it (Numbers 12:2).
At first, it seemed that Miriam and Aaron complained about the nationality of Moses' wife. In reality, they were jealous of the exclusive authority of Moses. History repeats itself many times in many forms. Church History is no exception and is littered with controversies over the exclusive authority of the Pope over all other bishops, the primacy of Rome over all other churches.
In Judaism, the primacy of Moses is indisputable. In this story, Moses did not defend himself.
Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all men that were on the face of the earth (Numbers 12:3).
Moses did not need to defend himself. God would defend him. God called the three of them out of the tent of meeting and publicly reprimanded Miriam and Aaron.
And the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud, and stood at the door of the tent, and called Aaron and Miriam; and they both came forward.
And he said, "Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD make myself known to him in a vision, I speak with him in a dream.
Not so with my servant Moses; he is entrusted with all my house.
With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in dark speech; and he beholds the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?" (Numbers 12:5-8)
God would speak to prophets through dreams and visions. But to Moses, God would speak "mouth to mouth". Miriam was no doubt a prophetess, and Aaron the High Priest. There was no question about their authority. But as for the authority of Moses, there was nobody on a par. After publicly establishing the exclusive authority of Moses, Miriam was punished with leprosy for seven days. Aaron was spared probably because he was the high priest and leprosy would deprive him of the office. Unlike what he did last time in the incident of the golden calf, this time, Aaron acknowledged the authority of Moses, admitted his own fault and interceded for Miriam.
And Aaron said to Moses, "Oh, my lord, do not punish us because we have done foolishly and have sinned.
Let her not be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he comes out of his mother's womb." (Numbers 12:11-12)
I have no intention to defend the primacy of the Pope here. It is too thorny a theological issue for me to handle. If history be any guide, God would come to the defence of the holder of primacy. But not all of us are as lucky as Aaron.

Dear Lord, let us humbly submit to the rightful authority You have assigned over us. Let us work closely like brothers and sisters to build up Your kingdom on earth. Amen.