Ex 16:1-5,9-15 / Mt 13:1-9
There are some good things to be said about dissatisfaction. At times we can and we ought to be dissatisfied and disappointed at our own conduct or our own achievement. We can say quite rightly, "I could do better, and I won't rest until I do." That kind of dissatisfaction has a firm reality base and it is in fact a grace.
But there's another kind of dissatisfaction and grumbling that has an entirely different character. We see its ugly face in today's reading from the Old Testament book of Exodus. After 400 years of increasingly oppressive slavery, the Israelites had been liberated by God and had been led by him into the safety of the desert and had been promised the gift of a wonderful new homeland all their own. But it wasn't enough and they grumbled loudly.
To us their conduct seems both shocking and shameful, but it would hold far less surprise for us if we took a closer look at our own dissatisfactions with lives that most of the people who've ever walked the earth would have rejoiced to taste for just awhile.
Everything we have is gift; we are entitled to none of it. It's time to face that truth, name our gifts, give thanks to God for them, and show our gratitude by sharing them daily without fail. It's a sure-fire recipe for a happy life!
