Bread from Heaven

Historians attribute the proximate cause of the French Revolution to the chronic bread-shortage in Paris. What began as a simple demand for bread later evolved into a full-scale revolution for liberty, equality and fraternity. Bread (food) or rather, the lack of it can cause revolutions! The French regime then had ignored the dictum cynically coined by the Romans many centuries earlier: To keep the people happy, "give them bread and circuses." They would have even gladly followed the suggestion of Marie Antoinette (bride of King Louis XVI) who supposedly sniffed, "If they don't have enough bread, let them eat cake." Not long ago we had seen the television pictures of lengthening bread queues in Prague, Bucharest and Moscow. With a rapidity that took even seasoned political commentators completely by surprise, bread queues changed to mass rallies, toppling one regime after another. History repeats itself!

In the first reading, we hear about the manna (the bread from heaven), which was provided miraculously by God as nourishment for the Israelites during their forty year sojourn in the desert. It also started as grumbling and murmuring, as a revolution. But it was the nature of this gift that it was offered daily. While sufficient for one’s needs, it could not be stored. It could be received only as "gift," not as commodity that could be stockpiled, warehoused and traded! In the same way, the Lord gives us "graced moments" – moments that cannot be manipulated. Moments that come to us most simply as a gift when we live in such a way as to be open to them. We get them daily, the graced moments of opportunity! Every single day. But there was only one choice and one opportunity – You could grasp it for the day, or it just evaporated away in plain sight.

There is a great hunger among us, a hunger for God and his life-giving Bread. Church attendances are rapidly declining but spiritual needs and hunger are on the increase. In the gospel reading, Jesus' revolutionary statement is "I am the bread of life," as he offered himself to the hungry crowd, "He who comes to me will never be hungry: he who believes in me will never thirst." Jesus who escapes the crowd who wanted to make him king, offers himself as the true Bread from heaven. He who teaches us to pray for our daily bread, offers his Body and Blood as spiritual nourishment. Christ Jesus is our true gift from heaven, true bread from heaven, he himself is "grace." What more do we need?