Homily: March 24, 2026, Tuesday of the Fifth Week in Lent (Old-New )

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 “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert…? We are disgusted with this wretched food!”

When you read the story of Exodus to this point, do you feel frustrated with the Israelites?

Don’t you think they should be deeply grateful to God? For years, they have been praying and crying to God to save them from slavery. Then God sent Moses and they saw with their own eyes the many miracles and wonders God performed to bring them all out of Egypt safely. The ten plagues, the passover, the parting of the Red Sea as they walked on dry ground to freedom. They experienced God’s power firsthand and saw what generations before and after them have not seen. They know God is real.

Now they did not have to be flogged and beaten, they did not have to work in harsh conditions, they did not have to live in fear, they didn’t even have to grow their own food. God provided every day.

And yet, they complained, they blamed God and Moses, they even called manna, the food God gave them from heaven - “wretched food”.

They had forgotten everything God have done for them and have promised for their future. Aren’t they such ungrateful, demanding and unreasonable fools?

But before we judge them too quickly, we must realize this:

Their story is our story.

This is the story of humanity. We are the same ungrateful, demanding, unreasonable fools.

The crossing of the Red Sea is the powerful image of baptism. Pharaoh and his army - their slave masters - were destroyed in the sea. The people were set free.

In the same way, through baptism, God freed us from sin. He broke the chains that bound us from generations past. He set us free.

But what happened afterwards?

Like the Israelites, we have forgotten.

God continues to free us again and again, through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Each confession is like a new Exodus. God forgives us and restores the relationship. He helps us begin anew. Everytime.

And yet, we return again and again to the same sins. We fall back into old habits. We go back to what enslaves us.

When we were steeped in sin, addiction and darkness, we struggled to break free. But after being released by God, we easily forget and allowed ourselves to slide back to slavery.

And like the Israelites, we complain about the very things that are meant to save us. We complain about the One who saved us.

So today’s reading is a wake up call. Remember what God has done for us. Trust Him. Be faithful to Him. And move forward, not backward.

St. Paul reminds us:

“Put away your old self… and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created in God’s way in righteousness and holiness of truth.”

The real good life is right ahead of us, where God is. It is only through Him, with Him and in Him that we will have the abundant and full life – truly free and forever.

Amen.


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