{"id":29254,"date":"2026-03-06T12:44:55","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T20:44:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/?p=29254"},"modified":"2026-03-06T12:44:55","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T20:44:55","slug":"massa-and-meriba-massa-y-meriba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/2026\/03\/06\/massa-and-meriba-massa-y-meriba\/","title":{"rendered":"Massa and Meriba \/ Massa y Merib\u00e1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Fr. Ed Liptak, SDB <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many times, we hear those words as a description of the testing place where water gushed from the side of Mount Horeb. The going was tough; the place dry and the people feared they and their stocks would die of thirst. Moses reminded them that they were led there by God, that they ought to trust Him, but instead were testing (Massa) Him. So ferocious was their grumbling (Meriba), that Moses feared for his life and he called on God to save him. Hence , \u201cWater from the rock,\u201d and when living the Christian life becomes tough, we pray, \u201cLord, I trust in you,\u201d or as Ps 95 urges, \u201cHarden not your hearts as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the desert.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul goes on, \u201cHope does not disappoint.\u201d God\u2019s Spirit pours out His love for us even though we may have lived unholy lives. \u201cChrist, while we were still helpless died at the appointed time for the ungodly.\u201d If we need further convincing, Paul cites Christ\u2019s own saying about the greatest love a man, (himself), can have: \u201cGod proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.\u201d God seeks love in return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the spirit of Lent, think of yourself, woman or man, as being the sinful woman at the well. It is midday and Jesus is tired and thirsty. He awaits us to ease his yearning though, just as the woman, we too may have led sinful lives. Jesus knows everything we have ever done. Now he asks us to repent and wants us to admit the wrongs we have done, declaring openly that He is Savior of our being, and as did the woman, the Messiah with power to heal by grace, \u201cLiving water,\u201d which He pours over and into us, His loving gift of salvation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[Jesus] is Savior of the world!\u201d
(Samaritan Townsfolks)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Massa y Merib\u00e1<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Muchas veces, escuchamos esas palabras como descripci\u00f3n del lugar de prueba donde brot\u00f3 agua del costado del Monte Horeb. El camino era duro; el lugar, seco, y la gente tem\u00eda que ellos y sus ganados murieran de sed. Mois\u00e9s les record\u00f3 que Dios los hab\u00eda conducido all\u00ed, que deb\u00edan confiar en \u00c9l, pero en cambio lo estaban poniendo a prueba (Massa). Tan feroz era su murmuraci\u00f3n (Merib\u00e1), que Mois\u00e9s temi\u00f3 por su vida y clam\u00f3 a Dios para que lo salvara. De ah\u00ed, \u201cAgua de la roca\u201d, y cuando vivir la vida cristiana se vuelve dif\u00edcil, oramos: \u201cSe\u00f1or, conf\u00edo en Ti\u201d, o como nos urge el Salmo 95: \u201cNo endurezcan su coraz\u00f3n como en Merib\u00e1, como en el d\u00eda de Massa en el desierto.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pablo contin\u00faa: \u201cLa esperanza no defrauda.\u201d El Esp\u00edritu de Dios derrama Su amor sobre nosotros, aunque hayamos llevado vidas imp\u00edas. \u201cCristo, cuando todav\u00eda \u00e9ramos d\u00e9biles, muri\u00f3 en el tiempo se\u00f1alado por los imp\u00edos.\u201d Si necesitamos mayor convencimiento, Pablo cita las propias palabras de Cristo sobre el amor m\u00e1s grande que un hombre (\u00c9l mismo) puede tener: \u201cDios demuestra su amor por nosotros en que, mientras a\u00fan \u00e9ramos pecadores, Cristo muri\u00f3 por nosotros.\u201d Dios busca amor a cambio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

En el esp\u00edritu de la Cuaresma, piensa en ti mismo, mujer u hombre, como la mujer pecadora junto al pozo. Es mediod\u00eda y Jes\u00fas est\u00e1 cansado y sediento. Nos espera para aliviar su anhelo, aunque, al igual que la mujer, nosotros tambi\u00e9n hayamos llevado vidas pecaminosas. Jes\u00fas lo sabe todo acerca de lo que hemos hecho. Ahora nos pide arrepentirnos y quiere que admitamos los errores cometidos, declarando abiertamente que \u00c9l es el Salvador de nuestro ser, y como hizo la mujer, el Mes\u00edas con poder de sanar por gracia, \u201cAgua viva\u201d, que \u00c9l derrama sobre nosotros y en nosotros, Su amoroso don de salvaci\u00f3n.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u00a1[Jes\u00fas] es el Salvador del mundo!\u201d
(Samaritanos del pueblo)
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Fr. Ed Liptak, SDB Many times, we hear those words as a description of the testing place where water gushed from the side of Mount Horeb. The going was tough; the place dry and the people feared they and their stocks would die of thirst. Moses reminded them that they were led there by God, that they ought to trust Him, but instead were … Continuar leyendo Massa and Meriba \/ Massa y Merib\u00e1<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":10336596,"featured_media":12531,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[777629889,2343517,20310044],"tags":[782003455],"class_list":["post-29254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fr-ed-liptak","category-gospel-reflection","category-province-news","tag-fr-ed-liptak"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/salesianbulletin.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/intouch-scripture-graphic-feature.jpg?fit=1600%2C510&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p59ePG-7BQ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10336596"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29254"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29257,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29254\/revisions\/29257"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}