SURVIVAL – 18 Sunday Ordinary Time, Year B
A supply carrier had the task of carrying a supply of fresh water and food to some people stranded in a desert outpost. The carrier grew weary from the sun and load. Midway through the journey, exhaustion overtook him as his own supply of food and water ran out. A few days later, he was found dead of hunger and thirst. Apparently, it didn’t occur to him that he carried on his back sufficient food and water to survive, for the pack on his back hadn’t been opened.
Any of us can find ourselves in emotional and spiritual deserts, if not physical deserts, where we must find what we need to survive. In the desert, situations of life themselves may be the possibilities of finding what we need to survive, but we are not always aware of them. “The desert” may be a simple need for patience, for energy in a difficult work assignment, or a difficult personal relationship. Or it may be the desert of a lack of love, of hurt, of sin, of guilt, of alienation, of failure, or inadequacy in some area of our relational life such as our roles as parents, teachers, priests, spouses, friends and coworkers. The desert can be experienced just living in a society with many decadent signs morally and spiritually, and many social problems we seem powerless to do much about. A frequent form of the desert of human life comes in sickness, in death, and loss of those close to us. The desert can be experienced in many different ways.
Our reactions to life’s many desert experiences and the sources we draw from to survive them can make the difference in survival or death in some form. A familiar reaction is the old grumbling in the desert game. This game, first played a few thousand years ago by the Israelites against Moses, Aaron and even God Himself, is described in the Book of Exodus. The rules of the game are to blame others, deny there is anything positive or possible in the situation, and compare your present situation as being worse than the one you have come out of. You have to make it worse than it actually is. The best setting for the game is simply a stressful situation.
The Israelites had been led by Moses out of the slavery of Egypt where they didn’t have an easy life. But they found life in the desert even more uncertain and difficult. They began to grumble against Moses telling him that in Egypt at least they had a bowl of watered down soup and some bread to eat. “Would that we had died at the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread! But you had to lead us into this desert to make the whole community die of famine!” To get to the Promised Land they had to pass through the desert. There was no other way to go. The desert was both a protection against their enemies and a means to the Promised Land. Like adolescence, which stands between mature childhood and adulthood, it had to be traversed. So much of life is like that! Everybody has their own little desert in the form of needs, problems and struggles. At time we have all played the grumbling game in the desert. God does some of His best work with us in our little deserts. Often in the very difficult situations and circumstances of life, the need for God and for people is clearly perceived. The same kind of experiences that lead one person to give up in despair allows another to grow and mature. Some are able to find the sources of life, energy, and hope in their deserts and others are not.
God may not take away the situation of the desert, but he can give us a way to survive and even grow in it. He didn’t take the Israelites immediately out of the desert, but provided them with what they needed in the desert itself. But they had to do something each day. “Each day the people are to go out and gather their daily portion; thus will I test them, to see whether they follow my instructions or not.” Each day their faith was tested. So many times we can receive what we need only daily. The food they found confirmed their faith and trust in the lord’s provident care of them. “What is this! For they did not know what it was. But Moses told them, ‘This is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat’.”
Often we ask the same question in our lives. We often need someone to tell us what is present in our deserts to help us survive, which comes from the Lord. What we need to survive may be closer to us than we realize or see. We need someone to point out to us the hope and possibilities present in our deserts.
In all of our deserts, we are to look for Jesus like the people in the Gospel. There are different reasons why people look for Jesus. It may be for the immediate solution to problems and needs. In the Gospel, Jesus tells them that they are looking for Him not because they have seen a great sign in the multiplying of the bread that revealed Him to be from the Father in heaven, but because they had their physical hunger satisfied. The Lord says there are other reasons to look for Him, for He is not going to fulfill all needs lest we forget our deeper needs for eternal food and life.
“Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” No matter what the condition of our lives and our deserts, we should always seek out the Lord, the Bread of Life. Our prayer should always be Lord “…give us this bread always”. We should remember well His words: “I am the Bread of Life; whoever comes to Me will never hunger, and whoever believes in Me will never thirst.” Do I seek the Lord in my life for needs only or because of who He is? Do I fail to see the opportunities for growth in my desert setting?
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