18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

In our first reading today, we see the people of Israel moaning about the hardships of life in the desert and looking wistfully back at their life of slavery in Egypt. We might be surprised at this attitude – surely freedom is far better than slavery no matter the cost. If only we as humans were that enlightened. Sadly we are not – and all too often we prefer the comforts and luxury afforded by enslavement to the hardship that fighting for one’s freedom entails. Often when we first embark on the spiritual journey, we do so with much zeal, confident that the God who has filled our hearts with consolation will continue to do so. But then, as we do battle with our inner demons and with external forces that threaten our inner freedom, we unavoidably encounter trials and hardships that require a measure of self-sacrifice in order to overcome. The spiritual life requires a bit of backbone, and the vision necessary to know that the time of hardship we are experiencing is only temporary. During their time in the desert the people of Israel were invited by the Lord to trust that God was leading them to the promised land. In the meantime, God invited them to trust that God would provide them with what they needed to survive each day.

In such times it’s like you’re climbing a never ending mountain. As you look ahead all you can see is a few more metres of steep incline and you may be tempted to think that at the end of that incline lies the top of the mountain. But having got there you find that there is another few more metres of steep incline, and you realize that you don’t actually know when you are going to summit, so instead of rashly running up what you think is the last few metres to the top, it’s best that you pace yourself and conserve your energy, knowing that you’re in it for the long haul. At such times, what God promises us is not that the top is near, this would be dishonest of God if the top is still far away. Rather what God promises us is that God will give us the energy we need day by day, minute by minute so that we do eventually get to the top. Even though we might not be able to see the top, we can take consolation in the fact that God sees the top, and will see that we get the energy we need to get there. This means transitioning from our normal mode of depending on our own strength to depending on God’s providence. Instead of deriving confidence from knowing that our energy is commensurate with what is needed to attain our goal, we rather gain confidence from the fact that God’s providence is generous enough to get us to the top.

This was the attitude that God wished to inculcate in the Israelites during their wanderings in the desert. They did not know where the promised land was, and had to trust that the pillar of fire and cloud would lead them there as they journeyed day by day. This is the sense of the instruction of the Lord to the people of Israel not to collect more manna than what they needed for the day. If they tried to hoard the manna, it would decay and go bad by the next morning. This symbolizes how there can be no half measures when it comes to trusting the Lord, we either go all in or not at all. If we try a hybrid solution of trusting in our own strength, intelligence and skill and trusting in God, it simply will not work. This is not to say that we should not employ our intelligence and energy in the task at hand. What is does mean is that we need to put our intelligence, skill and energy in the hands of God at the beginning of each day as we discern the way that God wishes us to go.

Because trusting in God does not mean expecting a free lunch every day. In last week’s gospel, we saw how Jesus fed the 5000 out on the hillside by the shores of Lake Tiberias. In this week’s gospel, we see these same crowds seeking out Jesus expecting another free lunch. Jesus tells them not to work for the food that perishes but for the food that endures to eternal life.

Questions for Reflection

1. Can I remember the zeal that I first had when I embarked on my spiritual journey? What becomes of my spiritual motivation when the going gets tough?
2. Do I feel that I have to see the summit of a mountain before I agree to climb it? Am I someone who can only function when I feel in control of my life?
3. Do I hoard the blessings God gives me, anxious that their source will dry up suddenly?