Wednesday of the Eighteenth Week of Ordinary Time

Today's Mass Readings

When the Israelites set out on the Exodus from slavery in Egypt, they left behind more than oppression. The land of enslavement did not just have meat, it had overflowing fleshpots (cf. Ex. 16:3); it had tasty vegetables (Numbers 11:5). The hardscrabble nomadic life in the Sinai desert was another story. So even when they received miraculous food in the wilderness from the God who lead them on their way, they were dissatisfied. In fact, the name manna means pejoratively, “What is this?!”

For the later Judahites in Babylonian captivity, they had a different perspective on the Exodus. For them the desert was a place where God was particularly close to His people. This was the place where they were not distracted by worldly gain and the Lord provided for their every need. They longed to be called out into the desert to become His special nation again.

The Jewish people’s vocation was to call all people to right relationship with the One God. However, they failed to do that, marred as we all are by original and particular sin. Christ’s witty interchange with the Canaanite woman about sharing the crumbs of the Chosen People with the gentiles segues into a second miracle of the Multiplication of the Loaves in Matthew’s Gospel. The earlier feeding leaves 12 baskets of fragments leftover (per the number of Israelite tribes). This second miracle leaves seven baskets leftover. The latter is not because Jesus is somehow winding power down. Instead, the biblical number of seven shows the spiritual perfection that Christ brings about now completing what was started with Israel in its earthly salvation from slavery.

This tells us God will not be outdone in generosity. What may seem like dry periods to us could use a different perspective. The saints teach us that what seems like distance from God is the potential for greatest maturity and intimacy with God. Christ provides what seem like fragments, but a second look tells us that the grace of God is a glorious waste for those willing to accept it.

Reflection by Fr. Pachomius Meade, OSB