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Reflection for May 29, 2005

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Manna, a food unknown to your fathers!

Today's first reading is taken from the Old Testament book called Deuteronomy. The book consists of a 34 chapter send-off speech by Moses who had led his Israelite people out of Egypt and on a 40 year journey through "a vast and terrible desert with its serpents and scorpions, its parched and waterless grounds" to a point where they are at last in sight of the fertile land of their ancestors - their Promised Land.

In this are the Israelites much different from almost every immigrant group that has ever come to the shores of America after crossing the vast Atlantic - and often as refugees from a tyranny such as the Israelites experienced in ancient Egypt? And therefore might not Moses' send-off speech have also been addressed to our own ancestors, be they European, African, Latin American or Asian - and to us ourselves insofar as we are always on the border of a realm known as tomorrow? And how promising, indeed, is the view Moses presents to his followers from a mountain on the far side of the Jordan River. He sees " a good country, a land flowing with streams of water, with springs welling up in the hills and valleys, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, of olive trees and of honey, a land where you can eat bread without stint." How the eyes of his listeners must have widened as they anticipated these wonders, even as the eyes of our ancestors must have widened when they first beheld the dim towers of Manhattan as gateway to a whole continent of opportunity for themselves and their descendants.

But any transition from a 40 year trek through a desert into a land flowing with milk and honey has its risks. In a desert you know you're dependent. There's no arrogance. There's no making it without cooperation, shared resources and ultimately calling upon God for an occasional miracle like the landing of a weary flight of migrating quail right smack in the middle of your camp or like that flaky stuff that oozed one day out of the desert shrubs, which the surprised Israelites called manna or "what's it".

Once however you pass from such want to abundance, you may forget your dependence. With all your needs well met you may begin to feel quite self-sufficient. Indeed ever since modern science has become the source of all the material benefits we enjoy, religion seems to have taken a back seat. Technology handles all our needs. Progress seems unstoppable; surplus wealth is simply there for the taking. There may be traces of water on Mars but no trace yet of any heavenly court in outer space. So why go to church when come Sunday morning we can have "late / Coffee and oranges in a sunny chair, / And the green freedom of a cockatoo / . . . to dissipate / The holy hush of ancient sacrifice." *

Moses anticipated such an attitude: "Be careful not to forget the Lord, your God, lest, when you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and increased your herds and flocks, your silver and gold and all your property, you then become haughty and unmindful of the Lord who fed you in the desert with manna, a food unknown to your fathers." A miracle food! Supernatural sustenance!

Today we honor the Holy Eucharist - the Supper Christ bequeathed to us prior to his death and resurrection. Herein we have the manna of the New Testament, a reminder of our dependence on God and each other, the bond that holds us together as we migrate through a modern desert en route to our ultimate Promised Land - the bread of life; the bread of God's Word, broken open for us by our homilist; a bread and wine (unknown to modern science) to keep our souls (also unknown to modern science) alive and well.

* from "Sunday Morning" by Wallace Stevens.

-- Geoff Wood