Confidence in God

To remember the good things God had done in our lives is to whet our appetite for Him on whom we can totally depend (Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14-16). With the bread of His Body and Blood, Jesus continues to feed the hungry believers (John 6:51-58).

An anamnesis of divine goodness

In the manner of retrieval, the text from Deuteronomy tells the audience to call to mind God’s blessings bestowed upon their ancestors, to encourage them to trust that God would be no less generous with them. For the edification of the later generations Israel’s early days were idealized, and the desert period of hardships and grumblings, rebellions and deaths became a romantic symbol of first love and fidelity, focusing on God’s constant care for the people. 

Manna and water from the rock in the wilderness were precious gifts of divine providence. In their life-and- death situation, the people were reminded of their total dependence on God. In the wayward lives of the subsequent generations, the manna and water would hauntingly recall how God cared even when the people were ungrateful and undeserving. 

Confidence in the Lord

The text points out that the desert pilgrims missed not only the meaning of the hunger and the thirst, and the serpents and the travails; they also did not understand the real significance of the manna and the water. They overlooked the fact that these signs were intended to draw their attention to the One because of whom they survived and lived. The point of all the happenings in the wilderness, whether in good times or in bad times, was the growth of their relationship with the Lord. 

God was raising the consciousness of the people, to show them that “not by bread alone does man live, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” The desert wanderers were supposed to look with fidelity beyond the gift to the giver. The manna (“man hu”—“what is it?”), whatever its scientific origin, as probably the hardened excretion of certain insects which feed on the sap of the tamarisk tree, was to be seen as an act of God, a gift of bread from heaven. It was not to be stored; the Israelites were to learn to rely on the Lord. Beside the tablets of the law (Exodus 16:32-34), the manna was a symbol of God’s sustaining mercy.

The bread from heaven

Jesus now identified His flesh as the bread come down from heaven. And this flesh would be given for the life of the world, alluding to His death as the supreme gift in sacrifice for all. For the believers to share in this salvation wrought by Jesus as the bread of life, one must eat His flesh and drink His blood. It is not enough to believe in Him as the bread of life, one must receive Him—starkly and boldly in John’s language—eat His flesh and drink His blood. In flesh and blood, i.e., in the life of Jesus as the Son of Man, the believers meet God and share already in the transforming life of God. That is why the evangelist did not mince words when he wrote that Jesus challenged His followers to “feed on” (“trogein,” to “munch, gnaw”) His flesh, so that they may become what they eat. 

In this end-time “manna” of Jesus, whereby the believers presently meet and enter into communion with the Jesus of the cross, the Risen and Exalted Lord, not only is the past made present, but a taste of the future is, as well, savored. “Whoever eats this bread will live forever.” And besides the dimensions of time, the interpersonal aspect is highlighted: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.” In Jesus, one encounters and interpenetrates, as well, the body of the believers. 

Alálaong bagá, the Lord who sustained the Israelites in the wilderness with the manna continued in the fullness of time to give life-sustaining bread to His people in the person, in the flesh and blood, of His only Son, in the Paschal Mystery now actualized in the Eucharist as the sacrament of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. The manna of the Old Testament is a type of the Eucharistic bread of life. The bread in the wilderness previewed the greatest feast of all—that to which now all humankind is called by the God of creation to participate, at the table of the Lamb (John 19:33). God is a God who feeds His people, in the past at the table of freedom from slavery with the manna, and now at the table of radical transformation with the flesh and blood of His only Son. God feeds the needy, though not worthy, threatened with extinction. And, as then, so now, there are skeptics and those scandalized by the offer of divine sustenance. Faith remains necessary to enter into profound communion with God and with one another, so that humanity may not extinguish itself in hunger.       

For more of my reflections and works, visit my blogsite: http://alalaongbaga.multiply.com.

THE anxiety of foreign and local businessmen who view with concern what, to them, may be a potential case of state-driven cannibalization or takeover of the country’s largest and most profitable distribution utility, the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), may find echoes in the case of the American Insurance Group (AIG), which, in 2005, was hounded with Rottweiler-like ferocity by Eliot Spitzer, its chairman and patriarch forced to resign just to spare the company from further pain.

Knowledge is key in a thriving economy—that’s why we are called Homo sapiens, thinking man. But in today’s borderless world, creativity and innovation—more than knowledge, per se—are the drivers in a knowledge-based economy.

Everybody hates the fact that prices are going higher. There is no question that price increases are outstripping income, at least in my household. Each day seems to bring new challenges to preserve purchasing power through substitution (DVDs instead of the cinema), conservation (it’s raining, you don’t need the air con on!) and elimination (try my new recipe for lechon bangus).

Alálaong bagá: Confidence in God

An anamnesis of divine goodness

In the manner of retrieval, the text from Deuteronomy tells the audience to call to mind God’s blessings bestowed upon their ancestors, to encourage them to trust that God would be no less generous with them. For the edification of the later generations Israel’s early days were idealized, and the desert period of hardships and grumblings, rebellions and deaths became a romantic symbol of first love and fidelity, focusing on God’s constant care for the people. 

About Town: Cebu’s power grid

Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) general manager Winston Garcia grabbed headlines recently by accusing the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) of lack of transparency, and saying the state-owned pension firm can very well take over the country’s largest power-distribution firm so that high power rates can be brought down. But as the Garcia-Meralco word war drags on, doubts are being raised as to whether the GSIS honcho is really after lower electricity rates.

Tax Law for Business: Reinvestigation’s effect on prescription of tax collection

Subject to certain exceptions, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has five years, following the assessment of taxes, within which to initiate the collection of taxes. But have you ever received a collection notice even after the expiration of this period? If your case is not one of the instances where the suspension of the prescriptive period applies, then you have all the right to contest the collection.

Reflections from the Mirror: A man who loved his country

What appears unrebutted during the confrontation between the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) top honchos and Winston Garcia of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), with some contributions from former National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) chief Romy Neri, is that billions of pesos have been collected by Meralco as electric-meter deposits.