Is the Lord in Our Midst or Not?

3rd Sunday of Lent - Exodus 17:3-7

In those days, in their thirst for water,

the people grumbled against Moses,

saying, “Why did you ever make us leave Egypt?

Was it just to have us die here of thirst 

with our children and our livestock?”

So Moses cried out to the LORD, 

“What shall I do with this people?

a little more and they will stone me!”

The LORD answered Moses,

“Go over there in front of the people, 

along with some of the elders of Israel, 

holding in your hand, as you go, 

the staff with which you struck the river.

I will be standing there in front of you on the rock in Horeb.

Strike the rock, and the water will flow from it 

for the people to drink.”

This Moses did, in the presence of the elders of Israel.

The place was called Massah and Meribah, 

because the Israelites quarreled there

and tested the LORD, saying,

“Is the LORD in our midst or not?”

“Is the LORD in our midst or not?” What a question! What an honest testament to the people’s condition of heart in the earliest days of the Exodus! And what an indictment of you and me today. You see, it is easy for us to look back at the children of Israel and look down on their silly lack of faith in the God who just a few months prior visited ten plagues on Egypt and gained them their freedom by parting the Red Sea, who has been standing before them day and night in a visible form (see Exodus 13:17-22), and who has been feeding them every day with miraculous bread from heaven (see Exodus 16:1-35). And yet we are not much different than our spiritual parents in the wilderness. That cynical, forgetful hardness of heart creeps in asking, “Is the LORD in our midst or not?”

The people are so hardhearted that they romanticize their lives as slaves in Egypt to explain away the Lord’s inexplicable actions, or seemingly lack thereof. Would that we had stayed on a path and in a place that was not good for us. At least we thought we understood it a bit and had some control. At least we knew how to operate, even if it was a bad and unhealthy situation, such as slavery is. Today we may wonder, where is the restoration of the Church? When will we get our act together? When will you and I realize that we represent Jesus Christ wherever we go, even when we don’t feel like it? We look at our own lives and struggles and wonder: Is the LORD in our midst or not?

Notice what the Lord said to Moses and says to us: “I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb.” Is the LORD in our midst or not? Yes, he is. We just cannot see him right now. He has gone ahead and is waiting for us to deliver water from a rock so that we won’t perish. Despite our grumbling and murmuring, despite our desire at times to go back to our own personal slavery in Egypt. The Lord provides for us in ways we cannot always see and do not often understand in the moment. He comes to us in sacrament, through outward and efficacious signs that actually change things on a spiritual level. 

Is the LORD in our midst or not? Yes, yes he is. He is at work restoring his Church, and he is at work restoring you. He will be standing there in front of you in what looks like bread so that he can live within you. He will be standing there before you in the Confessional so he can begin purifying the world in you. For our Catechumens, he will be standing there before you in the waters of Baptism to wash away every trace of sin in your life. He will be standing there before you in your spouse as you provide a living image of Jesus’ love for his Bride, the Church. He will be standing there before you in the oils of Confirmation and Anointing of the Sick to strengthen you as his soldier and to strengthen you to bear sickness well. 

Is the LORD in our midst or not? Oh, he most definitely is. And if you hear his voice today, whether in word or in sacrament, do not harden your heart.