Manna Benedict xvi

Monday 2nd July  Mass The Gospel, Mt. 14:13-21, on the multiplication of the loaves finds an enlightening comment by Benedict xvi from “Jesus of Nazareth", 'Bread', passim pp. 265-272. (Bloomsbury, UK)     A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew 14:18  • Looking up to heaven, he said the blessing and gave the loaves to the disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds.  Gospel Harmony (e-Sword) 72. The first retirement; Feeding of the five thousand Mat 14:13-21 Mar 6:30-44 Luk 9:10-17 Joh 6:1-13 The Meaning of the Manna At the end of Jesus' activity in Galilee, he performs the multiplication of the loaves; on one hand, it is an unmistakable sign of Jesus' messianic mission, while on the other, it is also the crossroads of his public ministry, which from this point leads clearly to the cross ... The great gift, ... which stood out in the people's memory, was the manna. Moses gave bread from heaven; God himself fed the wandering people of Israel with heavenly bread. For a people who often went hungry and struggled to earn their daily bread, this was the promise of promises, which somehow said everything there was to say: relief of every want - a gift that satisfied hunger for all and forever ... Jesus begins by pointing out that they have failed to understand the multiplication of the loaves as a "sign," which is its true meaning. Rather, what inter­ested them was eating and having their fill (see Jn 6: 26). They have been looking at salvation in purely material terms, as a matter of universal wellbeing, and they have therefore reduced man, leaving God out altogether. But if they see the manna only as a means of satisfying their hunger, they need to realize that even the manna was not heavenly bread, but only earthly bread. Even though it came from "heaven," it was earthly food - or rather a food substitute that would necessarily cease when Israel emerged from the desert back into inhabited country. But man hungers for more. He needs more. The gift that feeds man as man must be greater, must be on a wholly different level. .. When we encounter Jesus, we feed on the living God himself, so to speak; we truly eat "bread from heaven." By the same token, Jesus has already made it clear that the only work God demands is the work of believing in him..; Jesus' listeners are ready to work, to do something, to perform "works," in order to receive this bread. But it cannot be "earned" by human work, by one's own achievement. It can only come to us as a gift from God, as God's work. Benedict XVI  “Jesus of Nazareth” ’