Not all at once: Homily for Thursday, August 7, 2025

Spiritual growth or regression does not happen all at once. In today’s first reading Moses disregards God’s command to strike the rock once. While this may seem to be a minor issue, God rebukes Moses for not manifesting God’s holiness. Readings for Today.

Not all at once

I wonder when it first began to happen. I wonder how many times Moses had been tempted and then finally gave in. I wonder when it was that he began to believe that everything depended on him. Because I don’t think today was the beginning of the story.

To be sure, Moses had an unfaithful people to deal with. But when did he begin to say, “I’m just going to do things my own way.” Because the sin of Moses is not really that he struck the rock twice. The reading tells us it’s because he didn’t show forth the sanctity of God. He didn’t demonstrate holiness of God.

I’m told that it is possible in the desert to actually get water to come from a rock by your own efforts. But God wanted the people again to see his holiness. Now in a way, it’s hard to feel too strongly against Moses because every time something happened, the people complained. They longed for slavery once again because at least they had whatever it is they desired at that moment.

But their journey in the desert is not simply about a practicality. They needed to live somewhere, so through the desert they go. No. They are led by God. We’re going to see this continued with the 12 tribes. It’s always Judah that goes first. The praise of God because of what God is going to do for the people.

But little by little, Moses stopped turning to God in a way. We see that he still sort of does it because he and Aaron fall prostrate. But when it came time to do what God asked of him, to be holy, he just couldn’t do it.

We see the same with Peter in the Gospel. It seems like a natural reaction that when Jesus says he is going to die, to suffer and to die, that he would react the way he did. God forbid, Lord!

Whatever else we say about Peter, he loved Jesus. In some ways, just like John refers to the beloved disciple, Peter was a beloved disciple of Jesus too. He saw gifts and talents and abilities. But Peter, in this instance in the Gospel, did not show forth the holiness of God. He thought, as Jesus says, as human beings do.

What’s interesting in our own life is that we have the same call. The Second Vatican Council says that every single human being has this universal call to holiness. Just as God asked Moses to show forth his sanctity, so too he does with us. And in many ways, by the quality of our lives, we show forth some great and powerful witness.

Married couples show forth the beauty of Christ’s love for the church and the great sacrifice that couples need to make for each other. But they witness to the power of that love so that we can all get a little taste of the way in which Jesus loves the church. Religious wear habits not because we don’t want to buy clothes, but because we are witnessing to something.

Namely, those who recognize the power of the final coming of Jesus. We’re like people at a bus stop. If you see people at a bus stop, you can rightly conclude that they’re waiting for a bus. You can rightly conclude that if we are authentic in showing forth God’s holiness, we are waiting for the coming of Christ.

How is it that God is calling you to manifest holiness today? And how is it that God is asking you to set aside your own thoughts about things and to discern more fully and more completely God’s holiness, God’s sanctity, God’s ability? Of course, the biggest way that we show forth the sanctity of God is the answer of Peter in telling Jesus who he thinks he is. You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

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