"Me and my Big Mouth!"

19th Ordinary Sunday - Yr B.

Complain and Remain...Praise and be Raised!

            It seems such natural that we are people who love to complain. We are a people who love to murmur. This Sunday's gospel starts by saying that as soon as the Lord said to the Jews: “I am the Bread that came down from heaven,” the Jews murmured to one another. They started to say: “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother? Then how can he say, ‘I have come down from heaven?" What a difference our attitude towards life makes to our enjoyment of life. This is the positive approach of one woman I knew: "Lord, thank you for this sink of dirty dishes, we have plenty of food to eat. Thank you for this pile of dirty laundry, we have plenty of nice clothes to wear." Such a beautiful positive attitude is what you would expect of a disciple of Jesus. This is not the attitude we see in the Jews who were complaining about Jesus in the Gospel today (John 6:41).

            He said to them, “Stop complaining to each other.” (John 6:43) Why were they complaining? If they had known Jesus properly they would not have complained. We would all do well to pay heed to these words of Jesus, “Stop complaining to each other” because sometimes we complain like the Jews of his time. You have the power to be happy and stop complaining. It is a question of attitude. Be grateful for what you have. See the presence of God with you. Count your blessings. The attitude in the first verse of our Psalm today is an example to us. “I will bless the Lord at all times, His praise always on my lips” (Ps 34:1) Jesus is the bread of life to strengthen us to overcome all our problems. I strongly recommend reading a book called "Me and my Big Mouth!" by Joyce Meyer.  The title of chapter 6 is Complain and Remain, Praise and Be Raised.