How we can receive more from the Mass – 25

We have already reflected on how New Testament mysteries are often prefigured in the Old Testament – the Old Testament shines a light so that we can better understand our celebration of holy Mass.  Let’s look at some more of these and how they relate to the Eucharist.

After the Jews had escaped from Egypt, they very quickly began to complain that they had no food; whereas, even as slaves, their bellies were full.  So God performed the twofold miracle in the wilderness – they collected manna in the morning and quail in the evening, both of which God provided.  In other words…bread from heaven and flesh from heaven.

We are told that the manna tasted like wafers made with honey.  This detail is significant for they were heading for a land flowing with milk and honey (Deuteronomy 26:9) – the manna from heaven can be seen to be a foretaste of the Promised Land.

The Jews took some of the manna and placed it in the Tabernacle, the portable temple in which they worshipped God while they were in the desert.  And they later referred to this manna as “grain of heaven” and “the bread of angels.”  (Psalm 77(78):24-25)

By the time of Jesus, when Jews thought about manna, they didn't just look back to a historical event, but also to the future, when the Messiah – the new Moses – would again bring them the miracle of manna from heaven.

The Catechism brings these insights together when it tells us that the ‘daily bread’ mentioned in the Our Father “…refers directly to the Bread of Life, the Body of Christ, the ‘medicine of immortality,’ without which we have no life within us...its heavenly meaning is evident: ‘this day’ is the Day of the Lord, the day of the feast of the kingdom, anticipated in the Eucharist that is already the foretaste of the kingdom to come.” (CCC 2837)