Monday of the
Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
(Numbers 11:4b-15; Matthew 14:13-21)
People’s complaining about government services has a long
history. Today citizens expect a host of
benefits – education of children, protection from mercantile fraud as well as the
building of roads and the defense from foreign powers. The first reading today shows what people in
Moses’ day demanded.
The Israelites have become tired of eating manna. Although it provides them calories, they evidently
find it bland to the taste. In any case because
it is all they have to eat, they have begun to abhor it. They take their case against God to Moses,
his representative. “Give us something
else;” they demand, “it was better for us in Egypt.”
We might call the people ungrateful for forgetting the
drudgery of life in the old country. But
God is more understanding. He will provide
meat to enhance their diet. Much more
significantly, in time he will send his Son Jesus to feed them the Bread of Life. In today’s gospel Jesus gives his listeners a
foretaste of the banquet to come. The
people receive sustenance for the journey home.
One day they will remember this ersatz meal as like the Eucharist. In that meal they will be nourished spiritually
so that they may experience eternal life.
