Do I trust that the Lord will provide me with what I need? Not, perhaps, what I think I need, but what is most truly necessary? This is what it means to trust in God’s providence.
The manna which the Israelites ate in the desert, about which we hear in today’s first reading, is a marvelous instruction in God’s providence. For forty years—forty years!—while Israel was wandering in the desert wilderness, God fed his people with this miraculous bread from heaven. It was always exactly as much as they needed, no more and no less, and it could not be hoarded or preserved, except in order to keep the sabbath. If Israel was tempted to mistrust God’s providence, the manna was a constant corrective.
Today, let us meditate on this gift of the manna in the desert and of the gift it prefigures, Jesus, who comes to us as the Bread of Life. And we can consider the ways in which God has provided and still provides for us at each moment, giving us the grace and love we need to live and persevere in love.