The Good Ole Days

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Summer is the time of year when many of us take vacation time.  Whether it’s a little trip down to Cedar Point in Sandusky, a trip to Lake Michigan or Lake Huron, or maybe we have a place somewhere, summer in Michigan always feels like a good time to get away from home.  And yet, as good as vacation is, it is always good to be back home.  I know I was very ready to come back home from my summer classes.  There’s something about sleeping in your own house that is different from sleeping elsewhere, no matter how nice it is.  

Perhaps we can better understand the Jews’ frustration, then, because they were leaving their home (they had been in Egypt for over 400 years!) for a place they have never been, which was to become their new home.  They were not familiar with where they were going, and they were wandering around in a desert.  I think many, if not all, of us would grumble a little if we were put in a similar situation.  

But, their grumbling (and our grumbling, too) reveals how much we trust God.  Do we have faith that God will take care of us?  Or do we idolize the past, even though it had its own challenges.  How silly we probably think it sounds for the Israelites to say, “‘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!’”  They were basically saying, “I’d rather be a slave in Egypt and have died there than travel here, because at least I had food in my stomach!”  God had promised to send them to a land flowing with milk and honey, with the basic necessities (milk) and with the sweet things of life (honey), but they weren’t there yet, and so they preferred their past, even though it meant slavery.

In our Gospel, the same thing happens, except in a different way.  Instead of wanting to go back to Egypt, they want regular bread.  Jesus gave them a great sign, a miracle, when He fed the 5,000.  But the miracle was not intended merely for their bellies: it was intended to reveal who Jesus is: the Son of God.  But the people, who are excited about a new way of getting food, follow Jesus to get more.  Jesus understands their hearts, and says, “‘Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled.’”  But then Jesus promises them food, “food that endures for eternal life.”  How do they respond?  They go back to the past, they go back to “the good ole’ days” with Moses in the desert and manna and quail.  

But Jesus isn’t promising them manna and quail.  Jesus is promising what manna pointed to: the Eucharist.  Jesus is giving them bread which is not bread, but which is flesh.  And we get a hint of that at the end of the Gospel when Jesus says, “‘I am the bread of life.’”  

We, too, have that tendency to look backwards and pine for “the good ole’ days.”  When exactly those are varies from person to person.  Maybe it was two years ago.  Maybe it was 20 years ago.  Maybe it was the ‘50s.  Whenever it was, it can be hard to leave what is familiar to us and go on pilgrimage to where God leads us.  It means change, which is almost always hard.  It means going towards the unknown, because none of us know exactly what will happen in the future (if you do, let me know, and I’ll start playing the lottery).  But we can’t go back, any more than the Israelites could go back to Egypt.  That was their past; God was moving them into their future.

Maybe this present isn’t the future you imagined 5 years ago.  Maybe your health is not as good as you hoped it would be.  Maybe the culture is not what you hoped it would be.  Maybe there have been unexpected deaths that have shaken your very foundation.  Maybe the Church isn’t what you hoped it would be.  But, I can promise you this: if we follow God and trust in Him, He has nothing but our good in mind.  God did not lead the Israelites from Egypt to Sodom and Gomorrah.  Jesus did not feed the 5,000 and then given them little crackers that would rot after each day.  God led the Israelites to the Promised Land; Jesus gave His Bride, the Church, the Eucharist.  God is leading us somewhere, both as a parish and as individuals.  We’ve never been there before, and the unknown can be scary.  But if we trust in God and trust that He will never lead us where His love cannot surround us, then we don’t need to be afraid, because that place, too, will become our home: the place to which we long to return.