18th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Did God’s people understand the spiritual journey they were on? God’s offer of release from Egypt and freedom from slavery was attractive of course, but were they willing to pay the price? Are we?
Given the harsh desert conditions the Israelites faced, they could only dream about the land they left behind where at least “we ate our fill of bread.” It was not easy to plod on in the desert, unsure of where they were going, starvation at their doorstep. Even their leader disappointed them. (Honestly, though, what leader doesn’t?)The Israelites needed to grasp a deeper reality. They needed to see that it was not really Moses but God who was leading them: patiently asking for their trust, willing to provide for their daily bread. How quickly they forgot the great deeds God worked in their midst. In their desert sojourn, God came through, again and again, this time promising to rain down bread from heaven. In spite of their grumbling and lack of trust, God showed them steadfast love and mercy. Only a wilderness experience could bring them to understand God’s amazing love (hesed, in Hebrew, hard to translate into English, but some attempts have been: mercy, loving kindness, steadfast love, commitment).
The wilderness presents us, too, with many challenges. Facing adversity, fear and uncertainty our human nature yearns for the easier way out, the proverbial greener grass. We often fail, as the Israelites did, to see who is really leading us. We easily forget the great saving deeds God has done for us.
This account has much to teach us in terms of faith, trust and dependence upon God. It also raises within us questions: What are we hungering for? What truly satisfies our needs?
This story’s most important lesson is the true nature of bread. Our daily needs (for which we pray in the Our Father) are important, but the bread we truly need is shown to us in the Word of God, the bread from heaven. This is the Body of Christ, the one bread that satisfies not the human hunger but the deepest need of the human soul.The author, Ms. Barbara Gawle, leads Bible studies at her parish, Incarnation Church of Wethersfield, CT. She is a CBS graduate and the 2012 recipient of the Biblical School's highest award, the Lawrence Boadt Memorial Medal.
