Friday of Week 26 in Ordinary Time (Year II)
Saint Jerome, Priest, Doctor
Job 38:1,12-21,40:3-5 | Psalm 138:1-3,7-10,13-14 | Luke 10:13-16
My words have been frivolous: what can I reply?
I had better lay my finger on my lips.
I have spoken once… I will not speak again;
more than once… I will add nothing.
(Job 40:4-5)
We Singaporeans are champion complainers. While Satan gave Job a Really Hard Time, we tend to grouse at trivial things, from the lack of power outlets in our hotel rooms to our colleagues’ offensive body odour. Even when the subject of our displeasure is trivially addressed (unplugging an unneeded appliance, or a quiet word with “Stinky Sullivan”), we prefer to vent our grievances to others, in the expectation that the appropriate people would overhear and take any necessary actions.
Strangely, there seems to be an inverse relationship between the severity of our discomfort and the volume of our discontent. The people who have the most right to vent loud and long, like our previous coach captain David who has to take care of an intellectually-disabled son till his dying day, are usually the quietest. Perhaps it’s because they need to focus all their energy on the task at hand; in any case, they almost always choose to bear their back-breaking burdens in silence.
When we find out about such persons, we do what comes naturally: cluck in sympathy, praise them for their fortitude, then go back to lambasting our flavourless coffee.
Perhaps we can instead take inspiration from these suffering Samsons, and focus on what I call MALT: More Action, Less Talk. I think fixing our own problems, and helping others fix theirs, would go a lot further towards making a better world than dropping acid remarks about minor inconveniences.
Lord, give us:
the serenity to accept the things we cannot change,
the courage to change the things we can,
the wisdom to know the difference,
and duct tape to silence our negative natterings.
Amen.