The Israelites “grumbled” many times during their sojourn through the desert to the land God had promised them. In many cases God’s reaction was anger at the people’s failure to trust in God’s guidance, despite the circumstances. In this week’s reading, however, God’s ultimate response was an act of care: sending them the “flesh” and “bread” they desired.

There’s a war on carbs going on out there! But we Christians must stand up for bread. Bread stories abound in scripture: the blessed offering of Melchizedek to Abram; the bread of angels that rains down in the Exodus desert; Elisha’s miraculous multiplication we recalled last week; Elijah’s angelic hearth cake we’ll hear about next week; and on and on through gospel stories of multiplied meals until we get to the bread-to-end-all-breads, which is the Bread of Life itself.

If you read the entire story about the manna, all of Exodus 16, you will find that it was a way God would test the people “to see whether they follow my instructions or not.” Indeed, the giving of the manna becomes a series of tests of whether the Israelites would follow God’s commands, concluding with Moses telling Aaron: “Take a jar and put a full omer of manna in it. Then place it before the Lord to keep it for your future generations.”

With faith in God’s salvation, we ask for mercy.

"He gave them bread from heaven to eat.” The Israelites faced not only hunger in the desert but also certain conditions on which God’s feeding of them depended, and though they weren’t always successful in following all of them they still received the precious food.

The word manna can be translated “what is this?” Not a bad question for us who are confronted on a Sunday morning not with strange, edible flakes strewn upon the desert floor but with the “true bread from heaven.” Some of us are old enough to recall parents who would take that bread, Holy Communion, at Mass only if they had gone to confession the very day before.

Bread for myself is a material question. Bread for my neighbor is a spiritual one. —Nikolai Berdyaev, 1874-1948