We continue our Lenten Parish Retreat, and
this third week of Lent our theme is “Raining Down Bread from Heaven.” It comes
from Exodus 16:4 where the Lord says to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from
heaven for you.” The “manna” given in the wilderness is the precursor, the
type, of the Bread of Life that Christ gives us, the Eucharist.
The
setting in Exodus is that the 12 tribes of Jacob/Israel had now come forth from
Egypt. The Passover deliverance had spared their first-born sons from death
when the destroying angel “passed over” their homes upon seeing the blood of
the slain lamb on the wood of their doorposts. (Exodus 12 & 13.)
Now
by the First Century, the Jews expected from the coming Messiah a “new manna,”
a new gift greater than Moses had given (cf., John 6:30-31). Scripture records
two occasions when Jesus did speak about this new manna that He, the Messiah,
was to give.
The
first was when He taught us the Our Father (Lord’s Prayer). He taught us to
pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11). The word translated
into English as “daily” is a Greek word literally meaning “above nature.” St.
Jerome (AD 340/347-407) translated it as, “supersubstantial bread,” in the
Latin Vulgate. He said, “It is above all substances and surpasses all
creatures.” St. Cyril of Jerusalem (AD 313-386) had previously said something
similar: “This Holy Bread is supersubstantial” and not like common bread. A
faithful First Century Jew longing for the Messiah would understand this prayer
as asking God for the new manna that the Messiah was to give.
In
fact, that understanding of the Lord’s Prayer has remained throughout history.
In St. Francis of Assisi’s (AD 1181/82
- 1226)
exposition on the Lord’s Prayer (in his “Office of the Passion”), he wrote,
“‘Give us this day’: in remembrance, understanding and reverence of that love
which [our Lord Jesus Christ] had for us and of those things which He said and
did and suffered for us. ‘Our daily Bread’: Your own Beloved Son, our Lord
Jesus Christ.”
The
second time Jesus spoke of the new manna He would give is in the Gospel of
John. The people asked Jesus for a sign like the manna Moses had given in the
wilderness. Jesus replied, “My Father gives you the true Bread from Heaven,”
and said, “I AM the Bread of Life” (John 6:31-35). And He repeated His
statement paralleling the words from Exodus: “I AM the bread which came down
from heaven” (John 6:41.) And interesting present tense statement of His
identity about a past event of some 1200-1500 years prior.
And
having said it twice, He says it twice more, connecting the “bread” with
eternal life and with His flesh: “I AM the bread of life. Your fathers ate the
manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down
[present tense] from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. I AM the
living bread which came down [past tense] from heaven; if any one eats of this
bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of
the world is My flesh.” (John 6:48-51.)
Dibby Allan Green