Is it sinful to complain to God?
This is the most frequently asked question (FAQ) I get from everyone especially during confessions. And I always explain that it is not really sinful to complain to God in the sense that complaining to Him may actually be an expression of our deep faith and intimate relationship with Him. In our first reading we find the prophet Elijah complaining to God as he fled to the desert from the soldiers of Queen Jezebel sent to kill him: “This is enough, O Lord! Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”(1Kgs.19:4) In that sense, complaining is a prayer that comes from our hearts, expressing our deep, emotional pain as well as physical sufferings when we all we wanted is to take a deep sigh and blurt out what’s deep inside to complain or share with others. Especially with God whom we believe would do something to our plight. What is sinful is the “murmuring” we have heard from today’s gospel: The Jews murmured about Jesus because he said, “I am the bread of life that came down from heaven,” and they said, “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 heave’?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Stop murmuring among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day.”(Jn.6:41-44)
When we were growing up, it was a big “no-no” to murmur to elders like mothers, lolas and titas. Recall how sharp their eyes and ears that even if you are already on your way up to your room or leaving their presence, they knew so well you were murmuring that the next thing you knew, you have been slapped! “Tumigil ka sa kabubulong-bulong at tatamaan ka sa akin” is a clear a present danger situation, not a warning. It is bad, and sinful to murmur because it comes from the intellect than from the heart. There is resistance and refusal to be open, an insistence on what we know or deem as right and better to something being presented. See how the Jews rehashed their perceptions against Jesus when He first came home and preached in their synagogue as “they took offense at him” (Mk.6:1-6, 14th week) again in this scene in Capernaum. Murmuring is sinful not only because it lacks respect but most of all, there is the underlying current, even a sinister one that runs deep within us to undermine or go against somebody, especially God and those above us like parents and superiors. It is an expression of a lack of faith. That’s the problem with those around Jesus in Capernaum: they refused and could not believe Jesus because He was one of them as they thought. We need to be open to enter into the reality and mystery of Jesus. Hence, after telling them to stop murmuring, Jesus said “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day… Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me.”
According to St. Augustine, “everything is grace but grace builds on nature.” It is always a grace from God to believe in Him, to have faith in Him but we have to nurture that gift within to grow and bloom. It is difficult to grow in faith and be captured by this faith if we do not stop “murmuring”: being too cerebral cannot solve everything because there are more realities in this life not visible with our eyes. It is only with the eyes of faith can we truly see the most essential things in life as the Little Prince realized. Through faith, we not only become open to God but also experience and realize something bigger which is love. Faith is akin to love. Both always go hand in hand because when we believe, we love. The more we love, the more we believe! When we believe, we love, then we live authentically. When we stop believing, we also stop loving, and we refuse to live anymore because there is nothing else to hope for in this life.
Believe. Love. And live. When we believe in Jesus, we love more truly – that is when we live authentically. This we shall see in the Lord’s discourse of His being the bread of life. But why “bread”? Bread is the most basic and essential food anywhere. Jesus offers Himself as the bread of life to show us that more essential and more basic than food and other material things for man is God alone. In declaring Himself as the bread of life, Jesus now presents Himself as the reality of God we do not see. Like the reality of bread as food, God is truly our life and sustenance not only in this life but in eternity! This we can see in the wonderful flow of the Lord’s discourse when He solemnly declared “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life” in verse 47. Then, two more times He declares His being bread of life as the “bread that comes down from heaven”(v.50) and “the living bread” before concluding that the bread He shall give is His “flesh for the life of the world” both found in verse 51. We do not eat simply to be nourished or worst, to be filled with food; we eat to celebrate life with others. Every celebration always has some food to offer because ultimately, what we offer in every meal is also our very selves. That is most true in Jesus as the bread of life we eat in the Eucharist to partake in His divine life so that our lives are not only lived but also fulfilled in Him with others. May we “live in love” as St. Paul admonished the Ephesians in today’s second reading by always believing in Jesus Christ so we could love like Him and live in Him. Amen.Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ni San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022
*Photo taken by Fr. Nick F. Lalog II at Sonnem Berg Mountain View, Davao City, 10 August 2018.
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