The Lord led the people of Israel
into the desert. They were liberated
from slavery in Egypt. Yet where is
their joy and their trust? They were
afraid of dying in the desert. They
longed for the familiarity of their lives in Egypt, even though their lives
there were lived under the bondage of slavery.
Where would their shelter be in the desert? How would they eat? Did the Lord lead them into the desert to be
led astray or to perish?
The
Lord gave them bread from heaven – the psalmist celebrates this event in the
psalm response this morning. And we
reiterate this request that the Israelites had as we pray to the Lord in the
Lord’s prayer – Give us this day our daily bread. Our farmers provide us food to eat through
their hard work and through the grace of God.
The Lord provides us the Eucharist as spiritual nourishment. We receive our daily bread in the Eucharist,
in the sacrament that Jesus established and that has been passed down to us
through Tradition in our faith. The
Eucharist and the other sacraments of our faith are parts of our sacred liturgy
where God is present in our lives as individuals and as a community of faith in
a special way. It is not meant to purely
be entertainment, it is not meant to be an extravaganza or a show. It is sacred liturgy that has been entrusted
to us by God and has been passed down to us by Tradition. In the Eucharist, we receive the bread of
heaven. Do we treat it as the bread of
heaven?
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