August 2, 2015
Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/080215.cfm
I once heard a travel agent say that complaining on a trip isn’t worth the trouble since it makes you and everyone who hears you more miserable than you already were. That can be a tough lesson to swallow when you have to wait on the tarmac for five hours to deplane or when your trip takes twice as long as you had planned. But one of the worst things that can happen when you are travelling is to run out of food, particularly if you are backpacking through remote wilderness. While we might hope to “grin and bear it” under such circumstances, in fact, many of us will be tempted to whine. The ancient Israelites, wandering through the desert with Moses at the lead, were little different from us.
Grumbling and Reflecting
In this Sunday’s first reading, we find the Israelites “grumbling” once again. They look back with longing on the country where they had been enslaved, Egypt. They reflect fondly on their slave-days when they “sat by the fleshpots and ate bread to the full” (Exod 16:3 RSV). In another place, they muse over the delicacies they enjoyed when under forced labor: “We remember the fish we ate in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic” (Num 11:5 RSV). When we are facing a trial, it is easy to put on our rose-colored glasses to look at the past, but we risk falling into a false view of what has gone before. Just because our memories sometimes scrub out the painful details about the past does not mean that the past was superior to the present.
What is it?
Despite the tone of their complaint, the Lord promises to give them food to eat—and not just any sustenance, but miraculous bread from heaven. This “bread” is such a strange food that when the Israelites first see it, all they can say is “What is it?” (Exod 16:15) Now in Hebrew man is “what” and hu is “it,” so their question is man hu. This question morphs into the name of the new food, man in Hebrew, manna, or “What’s it?” The text describes what the manna looked like: “a fine, flake-like thing, fine as hoarfrost on the ground” (Exod 16:14 RSV). And its taste and texture is also described: “it was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey” (Exod 16:31 RSV). Elsewhere, Scripture says that the manna changed its flavor to suit to each person’s taste (Wis 16:21). This extraordinary food sustains the Israelites throughout their wilderness wandering. It truly is bread for the journey.
Trust Test
Even in the midst of a miracle, God embeds a test. Moses instructs the Israelites to only gather enough manna for a day, so that they would continually and daily trust in God for their every need. Marvelously, “he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack” (Exod 16:18 RSV). But of course, some of them gather extra and as the lesson needs to be learned, that extra manna turns wormy (16:20). In addition, the Israelites are to rest on the seventh day and therefore collect twice the normal amount on Friday so as to have food for Saturday (16:22). God trains the people to trust in him every day with their very lives.
Fowl Meal
One of the things we often forget is that God did not condemn the Israelites to a vegetarian diet. They were complaining about not having meat to eat after all. So he sends in the quail. “In the evening quails came up and covered the camp” (Exod 16:13 RSV). Quail are funny birds. They are land-lubbers, very reluctant to fly, quite similar to chickens. They make there nests on the ground among grasses and run about looking for food. They are also migratory birds—and yes, they migrate on foot in large groups. There are several species, but what the Israelites snack on was probably the Old World common quail. Some people still hunt quail and it must be tasty because Henry VIII’s queen Jane Seymour craved quail so much during her pregnancy that Henry would send diplomats abroad to bring some back for her. The Israelites probably enjoyed it too, but their complaining about food was so grating, that later on the Lord promises to send them so much quail that it comes out of their noses! (Num 11:20)
Grumbling at God reveals our lack of trust in him. When we experience trials, problems, or even failures we are tempted to blame God for putting us in such a spot. Or when we need something, it is easy to whine before asking in all simplicity for what we need. Trusting God is difficult and yet essential. Real trust in God yields true freedom. Jesus instructs us, “do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” (Matt 6:25 RSV) God knows our needs before they are out of our mouth, so there’s no need to berate him with impatient complaining. Instead, we can submit ourselves to him, ask humbly for his help and he is bound to come through. In fact, he might even send us a gift so startling, all we can say is “What is it?”
image: Digital image courtesy of the Getty’s Open Content Program / Follower of Hans Schilling (German, active 1459 – 1467) from the Workshop of Diebold Lauber (German, active 1427 – 1467)
King Avenir, Josaphat, and Nachor Behold Hour Manna Fell in the Desert, 1469, Ink, colored washes, and tempera colors on paperLeaf: 28.6 x 20.3 cm (11 1/4 x 8 in.) The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Ms. Ludwig XV 9, fol. 254
