GROW: In the first reading, we encounter the prophet Elijah as he is fleeing for his life from King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. He accomplishes a day’s journey, then sits under a tree and prays for death. This is a tough scene! He is at the lowest point a human being can be. Yet in this darkest moment of despair, the light of faith flickers: Elijah cries out to God. He cries out for what he thinks he wants, and God provides him with what he needs, sending an angel (a messenger) to him with food and water for nourishment and strength. Thus fortified, Elijah continues his journey to Horeb. God took care of his tired, hungry, and despairing child. And over time, and through generations, his people continued to cry out to him, and in abounding love, God took care. Yet they remained separated from him. So he sent them, and the whole world, another messenger to bring food and drink for nourishment and strength: his Son. Jesus says in today’s Gospel, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever.” With even just a flicker of faith at our lowest point, or in the best of times, we call upon the Lord and can receive the perfect nourishment of the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ. Through God’s merciful love, he is food for this life and the next.

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GROW: When have you grumbled against God instead of consenting, trusting, and believing he would see you through to a brighter future? In this first reading from Exodus, the whole Israelite community laments over their wanderings in the desert; their earthly focus on hunger and thirst leads them to believe slavery in Egypt would have been better than God’s freedom for them. When we are struggling for whatever reason, it’s easy to forget all that God has done for us in the past and all he desires to do for us in the future. We may not even recognize the very life-giving and life-sustaining “bread” that lays before us, much as the Israelites did not recognize the bread that lay before them in the desert. In spite of our hard-heartedness at times, however, God is truly patient; he loves us beyond measure. Just as he did not condemn the Israelites, he does not condemn us but rather, calls us back to him time and again with love and mercy.

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