# @plusjames on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/B_42NS4HNzF
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/20819029-plusjames-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/87e3b51a4d.jpg
- **Posted:** 2020-05-07T13:25:40.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** James Ramos (@plusjames) — https://gondola.cc/plusjames

## Caption

I feel like Moses, but I don't want to end up like him.⁠
•⁠
In the last several years, and just on Monday, several priests told me they feel like Moses, wandering through the desert for 40 days. One parish had been flooded during Harvey, pushing them out of their church for nearly a year. One year after returning to their refurbished church, Imelda came, and they flooded again. After six months of all-too-familiar renovation work, they were set to return, again, at the end of March. Then the pandemic struck, and their hunger to return home for Mass together was prolonged, again. ⁠
I remember the sanctuary felt too humid, event for Texas. Our feet stuck to the adhesive left on the stripped floors. The priest looked at me and sighed. ⁠
"I'm very fond of Moses," he told me. (He really did like Moses.) "But Moses was so tired when he came out Egypt. I'm tired, too. When he went up to the mountain to cry out to God, 'Strike me now, dead!' God said, 'No, no, no. Just calm down. We'll get through it.' See, Moses went through all of this stuff, and he's my hero." ⁠
(I told you he liked Moses.)⁠
"Moses had to stay on the east side of the Jordan River, he could not cross the river with the people.," he said. "But I intend to cross here with the people."⁠
Another priest, while passing out palms curbside on Palm Sunday this year, also told me he felt like Moses now during this pandemic. He drew a parallel of how he celebrated dozens of Mass in a closed empty church that's usually packed and echoing with mariachi. ⁠
"Moses went up to the mountain to pray for the people he led, but he was alone. It's easy to feel like that right now."⁠
We might feel like Moses right now, just wandering. Sometimes Manna falls (it looks like Triscuits) and it's alright, then other times I feel like I'm standing in front of a raging Red Sea. And my clothes are getting wet.⁠
•⁠
#throughfire: A series reflecting #HolyWeek and #Easter in #blackandwhite.

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## Tags

holyweek, throughfire, blackandwhite, easter

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