Word to the Wise
Wednesday, July 24, 2019 - Wednesday in the 16th Week in Ordinary Time
[Exod 16:1-5, 9-15 and Matt 13:1-9]Here in the desert the whole assembly of the children of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The children of Israel said to them, "Would that we had died at the Lord's hand in the land of Egypt, as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread! But you had to lead us into this desert to make the whole community die of famine!" [Exodus]
It is not easy to be the "go-between" for humans and God! Moses had to bear the brunt of criticism for his leadership even though he was doing what God asked of him. In the scene from today's first scripture, we are presented with a people who are dissatisfied with their freedom because they are hungry. Indeed, what good is freedom if one is dying of starvation? It is a sad lesson of history that many people will choose dictatorship over democracy if the former will do a better job than the latter of making sure there is a "chicken in every pot and a car in every garage." In response to the complaint, God sends "manna," which will relieve the hunger, but eventually the people will tire of that and beg for meat. God will then send quail! It will go on and on. The lesson here is that faith should not depend on "what have you done for me lately!"
There is another aspect, however, to this scene which would appear in the Gospel According to John. In chapter six, Jesus' adversaries appeal to the manna in the desert as a sign of divine favor (John 6:31 et seq). Jesus tells them that it was not Moses but God who fed them and that he (Jesus) is a new bread from heaven. That new bread from heaven is celebrated and given each day in the Eucharist. The ancient story of the Exodus is re-lived each day for us. No matter what our "desert" may be, God will feed us one way or the other, but the Eucharist remains the unique sign of this care. AMEN