HUMAN HUNGER (B: 18th Sun in Ord Time)

First Reading: Exo 16:2-4, 12-15 (1 August 2021)

“Now I will rain down bread for you from the heavens. Each day the people are to go out and gather a day’s portion” (Exo 16:4).

This is the response given by God to Moses after hearing the Israelites’ complaint concerning the physical hunger they were experiencing in the desert (v. 2). The provisions that they had brought from their escape out of Egypt were already consumed, and they were anxious that they would all die soon with no means of producing food for themselves in a non-arable or barren piece of land. Here, they began to remorse their decision of believing God’s promise of liberation from their slavery since its trade off would be their collective demise by starvation. Thus, they blamed Moses and Aaron, saying, “If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger” (v. 3).

Hearing their desperate plea, God realized the prime importance of keeping his chosen people healthy. In this regard, he provided them every morning with an abundance of bread, constantly to their heart’s content (vv. 4, 21). In the evenings, he also sent to their camps quails to be their viand (v. 13).

Such was the excessive generosity of God as he would supply his people their daily food—without fail—for the next 40 years until their arrival at the promise land (v. 35).

Upon seeing this kind of bread filling their camps for the first time, the Israelites were bewildered. Their first reaction was an interrogative remark: “What is it?” (v. 17). As the Hebrew word for “what” is man, the name of this bread became man (v. 31). In the NT, this word evolved into the Greek word manna (cf. Jn 6:31, 49; Heb 9:4; Rev 2:7), known as “a heavenly food” that is “associated with Israel’s experience” (cf. BDAG). Given this background, I think that the term manna contains two profound meanings. First, it recalls the journey of the Israelites in the wilderness, which is filled with both victories and failures, laughter and tears, and fidelity and sinfulness. Second, it challenges each one to confront oneself with the question “What?” that relates to several aspects of community life:

“What shall we observe so as not to offend God?,” “What shall we do to participate in his quotidian show of generosity?,” and “What shall we do to prevent hunger from striking our people down?”

On this issue of global hunger, the non-government organization and global movement called “Action Against Hunger” (cf. https://www.actionagainsthunger.org/) presents some hard facts:

1. “There is more than enough food produced in the world to feed everyone on the planet.”

2. “As many as 811 million people worldwide go to bed hungry each night.”

3. “Small farmers, herders, and fishermen produce about 70 percent of the global food supply, yet they are especially vulnerable to food insecurity – poverty and hunger are most acute among rural populations.”

4. “Conflict is a cause and consequence of hunger. In 2020, conflict was the primary driver of hunger for 99.1 million people in 23 countries.”

5. “An estimated 14 million children under the age of five worldwide suffer from severe acute malnutrition, also known as severe wasting, yet only 25 percent of acutely malnourished children have access to lifesaving treatment.”

Mindful of this sad reality, we must challenge ourselves: In what ways can we help this ongoing fight against global hunger?

Indeed, manna continues to be the bread from heaven, but it will only reach more mouths if we do our active part in sharing it to more people as God did.

- Rex Fortes, CM