18TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (YEAR B)

1st Reading               Exodus 16: 2-4. 12-15

Psalm                           78: 3 & 4bc. 23-24. 25 & 54 (R. 24b)

R://"The Lord gave them bread from heaven"

2nd Reading             Ephesians 4: 17. 20-24

Gospel                         John 6: 24-35

MURMURING IN THE WILDERNESS

Today is the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B) and the first Sunday of August. For our knowledge, August is traditionally dedicated to devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This month calls us to draw ever closer to Mary and imitate her purity. We entrust the month into the maternal care of Mary. 

The Word of God this Sunday takes us once again into the issue of "food." Last week, we reflected on "food," where Elijah, through the power of God, multiplied 20 barley loaves for 100 men. Today, the element of "food" comes up in the readings.

Let us zoom in on the first reading (Exodus 16: 2-4, 12-15). Just a little backwards in verse 1, though not part of the pericope, we are told that the Israelites have arrived at the "wilderness" (midbar), if you like "Desert." The setting of today's passage is in the desert. The "Midbar" (desert) is associated with dryness and weariness. It is a "desolate land." What it means is that the Israelites have arrived at a place whose nature is one of desolation, dryness, and scarcity of resources. In that desert, Israelites will be faced with thirst (Exod. 15: 24; 17: 3), hunger (Exod. 16: 2-3; Num. 11: 4-5), wars (Num. 14: 2-3) and death (Exod. 14: 11-12). 

If there is any perspective from which we can view the whole narrative today, I propose that we view it from the angle of the keyword "murmuring" (luwn). This word in Hebrew connotes "spending the night" in doing something. Therefore, the murmuring of the Israelites was a persistent and consistent thing. They complained day and night and at any given chance. They complained about the lack of food. In fact, they charged their leaders, Moses and Aaron, for bringing them to the desert to die of hunger (or famine) (Ra'ab). 

The complaint, I believe, was not the issue. The real issue was what they said in the act of complaining persistently. They just started the journey or are in the infant stages of a long period of desolation, and we are met with complaints. They tasted pleasure in Egypt, and they are assured of a better kind of pleasure lived in freedom in the Promised Land. Between these two lies a period of dryness, a period of abandoning the attachments to a kind of pleasure that, as it were, eats you up without you knowing, and that is slavery. 

In complaining, they said, "Why did we not die at the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we were able to sit down to pans of meat and could eat bread to our heart’s content! As it is, you have brought us to this wilderness to starve this whole company to death!". This is a very heavy and sad statement. First, they acknowledged that they were in Egypt, but they preferred to have died during the days of the plagues. They preferred to have been caught up in death in slavery and "sin." This is sad for a nation that once cried to God for help. Anagogically, only a person deep in sin and pleasure that eats him up slowly can make such a statement. Slavery has become, as it were the new normal for them, and they are beginning to accept it. Their complaints revealed a deep-seated attachment to sin and pleasure. Viewing the passing through the Sea of Reeds as a kind of Baptism, we can rightly say that even after Baptism, we have work to do to ward off the former ways of life. 

In their complaints, they also asserted that Moses and Aaron brought the whole assembly (qahal) of Israel into the desert to destroy them (or kill them). Two things are key here. The first is that they are charging Moses and Aaron. They now believe that these two are the cause of their condition of hunger. It is a sad human situation to accuse others of what we go through. The second thing is that they called themselves an ASSEMBLY (QAHAL). The Hebrew, Qahal, makes them a worshipping community, not just a community. This is rightly a highly religious community. It is a surprise that this religious or worshipping community could not turn to God and speak their hearts to God, whom they knew could provide viable and lasting answers. They turned to their leaders who had not been given the mandate to provide food. They are just leading.

Attachment to Egypt even revealed that the assembly of Israel is unappreciative of God's saving work. Sometimes, life's changing scenes can make us forget God's blessings and favours. We need to be mindful of what we say whenever we are faced with some human challenges meant to help us detach from what kills us.

On this 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B), the Lord wants us to be mindful of what we say and do whenever we face challenges. The Lord wants us to be aware that sometimes we would need to enter a "desert" for detachment from past lives. It is essential.

Pax et Bonum