In the Desert with Those Hungry Israelites

Today is a look at the first reading in the Office of Readings. Exodus 16:1-18, 35. So many things strike me about this reading that it is difficult to pick only one or two topics to develop.

The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.

That this should be the first topic is only right, because it points out something very deep in human nature. The Israelites have already been through the parting of the sea on their behalf, and seen the bodies of the Egyptians washing up on the shore, and yet now that they are hungry, the grumbling starts. It says "the whole congregation," not just six or nine, but everyone of them started to grumble. And what about?

‘If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.’

Can you say lack of faith? Being spared the death of the first born, which the Egyptians had to suffer, and being delivered at the sea, now they are wishing they'd died in Egypt?

Here is my first point, we are ungrateful wretches who forget what God has done for us already, and only concentrate on what we want RIGHT NOW. Heck, I demonstrated that myself just a few days ago in an entry called Meltdown, so I am not immune to this nature of fallen humanity. No doubt I would have been a leader of people saying give us food! since I dearly love to eat.

Okay, so maybe that ungrateful wretches was a little strong, (I'm only saying that to assuage any hurt feelings, because we all know it's the truth.) We forget God has brought us thus far, and will continue to keep us.

Onward. What does God do? Does he do a Israelite SmackDown right then and there? No! In fact, God says

Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day. In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather on other days.’

Wow! None of the fire and brimstone we certainly would have cast upon them had we been in God's position. How hard it is for us as people to forgive ungratefulness in others, and this was a perfect time for God to wipe the whole tribe off the map, and archeologists would be digging up their bones saying, "looks like they starved to death."

God did not do that. Instead God said he would "rain bread from heaven."

Full Stop.

Where have we heard that before? Hmm? Jesus, I am the bread which came down from heaven. Plenty more happened in this mornings reading but my brain got stuck right about here. Rain bread from heaven. I am the bread which came down from heaven.

Recently I was in a discussion with a friend about attending an Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. We have different viewpoints, and equally valid, but for me the host on the altar inside the horribly named monstrance (ugh) is far more than any symbolic, or metaphorical, Jesus. It is the very nature of Christ, in the bread, the same that kept trying to make his dense apostles understand what he was trying to tell them. To me, that IS the bread that came down from heaven.

What is manna that covered the ground? I'm sure science could tell me, but I don't care, because I've decided that manna was God's own self given as food. In the same way that God's own self -- Christ -- is given as food in the Mass.