You have to have faith

Ex 16:2-4, 12-15
The whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, “Would that we had died at the LORD’s hand in the land of Egypt, as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread! But you had to lead us into this desert to make the whole community die of famine!” Then the LORD said to Moses, “I will now rain down bread from heaven for you. Each day the people are to go out and gather their daily portion; thus will I test them, to see whether they follow my instructions or not. “I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them: In the evening twilight you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread, so that you may know that I, the LORD, am your God.”

In the evening quail came up and covered the camp. In the morning a dew lay all about the camp, and when the dew evaporated, there on the surface of the desert were fine flakes like hoarfrost on the ground. On seeing it, the Israelites asked one another, “What is this?” for they did not know what it was. But Moses told them, “This is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat.”

Eph 4:17, 20-24
Brothers and sisters: I declare and testify in the Lord that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds; that is not how you learned Christ, assuming that you have heard of him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus, that you should put away the old self of your former way of life, corrupted through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created in God’s way in righteousness and holiness of truth.

Jn 6:24-35
When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into boats and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus. And when they found him across the sea they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
Jesus answered them and said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.”

So they said to him, “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.” So they said to him, “What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you? What can you do? Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”

So Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

So they said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

These readings are such a wonderful human-to-God story. The release from 430 years of slavery in Egypt is over, the Exodus has led them out into the desert of wandering and they are hungry. Their hunger becomes a complaint against God. They whimper and regret their having left slavery.

God promises food in the form of some mysterious bread, which the Israelites do not understand. There is a little test embedded in the offering. In this Reading we do not hear what it is. If we read a little further, God has asked them to take only their “daily bread” and not provide for any tomorrows.

Of course, as they often do in the Old Testament, they fail the test. They tuck a little away for a less rainy day and it spoils. The gift of today is prelude to the Giver’s kindnesses tomorrow. God provides and the Israelites are to continue watching for tomorrow’s renewal of care.

The wonderful thing here is that God doesn’t retract the gifts, because of the human self-providing—rather, God remains “watching-out” for His humanly family. God gives them bread from Heaven, which is mysterious, but inviting.
The Gospel presents the religious leaders of the Jews as asking Jesus for a “sign”, some kind of unusual event that will prove His authenticity. They quote a line from Exodus, reminding Jesus that their Father sent down miraculous bread, so what can Jesus do, like that.

Jesus uses the very image they use in their challenge. He refers to their religious historic scripture, bread from heaven, as a way of explaining just Who He is. As bread came down, He, Jesus Himself is presently, right now, coming down in their present experience. As the Jews failed to understand the gift of bread in the desert, so they do not understand Jesus. The Jewish leaders are solidly religious and committed to their traditions and sacred history.

We also read in the Gospel today, how the religious leaders were confounded with how Jesus got from here to there. In a sense, they were asking our human question about Jesus in the Eucharist, but even more about Jesus as our Lord and Savior. “How did you do that?” Faith is an understanding, which allows for the not understanding sometimes. How did God split the sea? How did God present manna and quails? How did Jesus take five loaves and two fish to feed so many? How is Jesus present as man and Son of God? How is Jesus present in the Eucharist? You have to have faith.

“You gave us bread from heaven, Lord, a sweet-tasting bread that was very good to eat.” Wis. 16, 20