Good Grumbling.

Grumblers get on my nerves. I suspect they get on yours too. Their murmuring (grumbling can be traced to the Middle Dutch grommelen), their whining and grousing often reveal self-centeredness and a negative attitude toward others—and toward life itself.

So it seems rather strange that the Lord would respond with an abundance of manna and quail to the grumbling “children of Israel,” a term that the author of Exodus uses seven times in today’s reading. Is there a message here? Perhaps grumbling is more acceptable when it comes from children who are hungry and afraid. From “children” like us. From “children” who feel betrayed, not by Moses or Aaron, but by their bishops and priests. Perhaps God smiles at the grumbling of Catholics who hunger for good preaching and mature spiritual leadership.

As children mature, however, they are less likely to grumble or murmur or whine. As adults, they can speak clearly about their honest needs and expectations, their hunger for wise pastors and faith communities to accompany them on their own desert journeys to mature spiritual freedom. They hunger, too, for the safety and flourishing of their children. Today’s pilgrims are the new “children of Israel”—God’s holy people.

I like to think that most of us are too mature to grumble. Over the years we have discovered that our childhood grumbling has blossomed into quiet trusting—trusting that the Spirit who led our spiritual ancestors through their harrowing desert trek is with us, too, aware of our spiritual hungers and eager to feed us with bread from heaven.

Fr. Donald Cozzens. Taken from Give Us This Day.

Fr. Donald Cozzens is a priest and writer living in Shaker Heights, Ohio. His latest books are the novels Master of Ceremonies and Under Pain of Mortal Sin.