Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish

FR MICHAEL BIBLICAL IMAGERY

(Fr Michael Boakye Yeboah: Vice Rector of St Gregory Seminary, Kumasi-Ghana)

FRUSTRATIONS

            Frustration is part of life experiences. Whether you like it or not something will make you feel frustrated. Moments of frustration at times can be so severe that one may question his/her faith in God. Some in the midst of frustrations and delay in God’s intervention have been led to seek assistance elsewhere. Have you been through some health challenges that have made you to question the power of God? Or were your frustrations occasioned by financial challenges or family issues? The author to the book Exodus relates a similar story.

            From a human perspective one can understand the mood of the people, who have been led into the wilderness by God and find no food there. An entire nation in such a desperate situation could hardly be expected to wait docilely for a miracle from heaven. Instead of scolding the Israelites, God promises a double miracle: meat in the evening (he sends the flock of quail into the camp) and bread in the morning (the “fine flakes” on the ground of the desert that they were to gather up as something unknown). Once more the Old Testament miracle (meat and bread: bread that is meat and meat that is bread) is merely the foreshadowing of that which God will give the world in Jesus. Many have died of hunger in the wilderness and continue to die there today. God’s ultimate concern is not to keep mortals alive a bit longer but to give them heavenly bread for eternal life, to use Jesus’ own expression.

            In the Gospel, the inspired writer seems to tell us that the miraculous multiplication of loaves is over. Now men pursue the Wonderworker so that they can continue to be fed by him. Frustrations set in again when the people couldn’t get bread freely from Jesus the next day. They wanted free bread as they had in abundance the day before. No matter how the people pushed Jesus for another sign he was not ready to be directed on that tangent. Frustrations have become one of the main tools that today’s false prophets are using to amass wealth. Some pastors have found out that man, in the midst of frustrations, always wants an easy way out through a miracle. So, if he (the pastor) can use any means to conjure a fake solution many will flock to him in search of solutions for their problems, and with that he will be a millionaire overnight. Since frustrations and life challenges are part and parcel of human existence, some fake men of God have found a way out to exploit the flock of God. Many people: rich or poor, heads of state or commoners, intellectuals or schools drop-outs, have all been caught up in this web. At times frustrations can make a person no matter his status or orientation in life fall prey to the tricks of some men of God. The sad thing is that these men of God do not pay taxes on the millions they make weekly. Note this, this is not particular only to our day. You remember a certain Simon (in the Acts of the Apostles) who approached Peter with money to give him some of the powers he uses to work miracles so that he can also operate?

            Jesus was familiar with the happenings of his day and so he wanted to offer man a permanent solution. It is just like the Samaritan woman at the well: “Give me this water so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water” (John 4:15). This too is understandable from a human perspective. Jesus instructs them to “work” for something else: food that endures for eternal life. Jesus links himself, the true Bread from Heaven, which if man accepts will have a permanent remedy for all his frustrations and quests in life. Unless one accepts Jesus fully in his life, his frustrations will never come to an end. Human remedy-givers do not have the full solution to man’s frustrations; it is only Jesus who does.