Brief synopsis of the readings: In Exodus we read that the whole community of recently freed slaves grumbled against Moses and Aaron for taking them from a good life in Egypt to starve to death in the desert. God then told Moses that he would rain down bread to feed them. Each morning they would find edible flakes on the surface of the desert. When they asked what it was, Moses replied that this was the bread God promised them. John’s Gospel begins not long after last week’s ended. The crowd followed Jesus and found him. When they asked when he got there he told them they were looking for signs because of the loaves and fishes, but they should not seek food that perishes but rather food that endures for eternal life. They can get this by believing in Jesus. As Moses gave his people bread from heaven, Jesus (who is the bread of life) will give bread that gives life to the world.

There’s an old adage that the grass is always green on the other side of the fence. In other words, no matter what you have, the other guy has it better. I find it interesting that what we have now can sometimes affect our memories. As a Baby Boomer I’m amused to hear my peers complain that the Gen Z’ers spend so much time staring at their phones and being obsessed with social media that they’ll never grow into a work ethic. We collectively seem to forget that we were accused by our parents of being so obsessed with watching television (affectionately called the “boob tube) that we’d never amount to anything.

That image comes to mind whenever I hear this passage from Exodus. At this point our merry band of ex-slaves are about six weeks into their 40 year journey to the promised land and already they have forgotten what their life was like as slaves: “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!” Obviously the writer of this passage from Exodus used some hyperbole but the point is well taken. It’s hard to imagine that, six weeks out, they were feeling nostalgia for their time as slaves. Slaves can be treated well or treated harshly, but they’re still slaves. They have virtually no control over their lives and no opportunity for the future.

But they feared that God’s promise to deliver them had somehow run out and so God renewed his promise. So exactly what was this manna? We don’t know. There are theories that “manna” means “what is it?” It really doesn’t matter though. Whatever it was it kept them from starving and was from God. We do know that whatever it was, it was something new. The fact that they needed instructions on how to cultivate and prepare it tells us they’d never seen anything like it. It kept them alive on the journey and allowed them into the promised land. Little wonder that today we use the word “manna” as something lifesaving.

And in our Gospel we don’t see manna but something as good. As I said in the synopsis the loaves and fishes weren’t strange to Jesus’ followers but their seeming appearance out of nowhere certainly got their attention. Little wonder they wanted more of these loaves and fish; if they were all guaranteed a dependable supply of food their lives would be much easier.

But Jesus had another agenda: he knew that even an endless supply of food wouldn’t completely satisfy them. Obviously foreshadowing the Eucharist, he spoke of a food and drink that will eliminate hunger and thirst forever.

But how does Eucharist (in bread and wine) do this? I think at different times we’ve mistakenly believed that Eucharist is either a reward for good behavior or it stamps our passport into heaven. Previous generations of Catholics were told that they had to go to confession before receiving Eucharist and were told that only Catholics who received Eucharist could go to heaven.

My problem with that is that it sells the Eucharist short. Pope Francis spoke clearly when he said Eucharist is not a prize for the perfect but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak. The people I’ve known with the greatest love of the Eucharist have always been the first to speak of their own weakness. I’ve never heard anyone speaking of Eucharist as something they deserved or earned.

In the same way Eucharist is not an ecclesiastical “visa” on our passport. There are passages in the Gospels where Jesus tells his followers that only those who have eaten of his body will be saved but I don’t think Jesus meant it to be a simple equation.

Instead of seeing Eucharist as either a reward or a visa, let’s look at it as a transformation. Last week I talked about the importance in the Gospel that Jesus had the crowd sit in groups instead of lining up in a single file and how this built community; it was my hope that individual members of the crowd were able to build relationships with each other not only by proximity but by sharing the loaves and fishes.

When I was a child we were told that after receiving Eucharist we should quietly go back to our pews and bow our heads in silent prayer to God. I’m certainly in favor of silent prayer but I’ve never been good at doing that after Eucharist. I’ve always kept my head up to watch people coming back to their pews and saying a prayer for them. I especially loved those times when I was a Eucharistic minister when I was able to look the other person in the eye and say: “The Body of Christ.”

If we’re celebrating Eucharist well I think it transforms us by recognizing that we have the power to transform others. I like to think it causes us to look at each other and, in the words of Mother Teresa, see the face of Jesus in all those we meet.

In a world where we allow the Eucharist to transform us, then we will surely not know hunger or thirst.