1st Reading for Sunday, Solemnity: Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi)

From: Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14-16

Israel's Character Forged in the Desert (Continuation)

[2] "And you shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments, or not. [3] And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know; that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but that man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD. [4] Your clothing did not wear out upon you, and your foot did not swell, these forty years.

God Not To Be Forgotten in the Time of Plenty (Continuation)

[14] "Then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, [15] who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, [16] who fed you in the wilderness with manna which your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end."
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Commentary:

8:1-6. The Israelites are reminded about the way they were tested in the wilderness and how God gave them special protection and fatherly care; and they are once again exhorted to fidelity. This context needs to be borne in mind when considering v, 4: it need not be taken literally as some rabbinical fables did, which took it to mean that in those desert years the Israelites' clothes did not wear out and their children's clothes increased in size as they grew tip.

"Man does not live by bread alone" (v. 3): Jesus will quote these words when rejecting Satan's first temptation in the desert (cf. Mt 4:4).

The relationship between Israel and God, which is compared to that of father and son (v. 5) was central to Jesus' thinking and teaching. Some other Old Testament passages, though not many, speak of this relationship (cf., e.g., Hos 11:1); a greater number of passages apply this idea to the relationship between the Lord and the King (cf., e.g., 2 Sam 7:14-15; Ps 2:7; 89:27).

8:7-20. This passage is more profound than might appear at first reading, because the sacred writer is using the theme of the Land to show the salvific dimension of God's actions. Israel's "departure from Egypt" marked the beginning of God's salvific action on behalf of his chosen people. The "wilderness", described as "terrible", helped to make that people realize that they needed God and helped them to hope in him. The "promised land", a "good land", particularly when compared with the wilderness, shows God's kindness towards Israel: in it they will find rest, peace and happiness. The only thing they need to guard against is glorying in it, as if they merited this good fortune. If ever they did give in to that temptation, they would be lost. Clearly, this theological-moral lesson should be taken to heart by everyone in his relations with God, whatever his or her circumstances.

The Canaanites went in for coarse and disgusting fertility rites to win the favor of the gods that protected agriculture and livestock. The Israelites must do no such thing. They should show their gratitude to the Lord who sends rain, sun and dew, by offering sober and sensible sacrifices from field and flock. The Deuteronomic Code (chaps- 12-26) in fact deals with agriculture-based festivals such as "Weeks" (Deut 16:9-12), "unleavened bread" (16:3-4), "tithes" (14:22-29), etc. It is through this, and above all, though living up to the moral demands of the Law, that Israel will show its fidelity to Yahweh.

The ease with which men (and nations) forget God once they become rich and prosperous is something readily proved from history. And when that happens the threat contained in Deuteronomy in vv. 19-20 inevitably becomes a reality, for "without a creator there can be no creature. [...] Besides, once God is forgotten the creature is lost sight of as well" (Vatican II, "Gaudium Et Spes", 36); hence the need not to put one's heart on material things. "You need to realize," St Gre- gory of Nyssa urges, "the origin of your life, your mind, your wisdom and, what is more important still, the fact that you know God, your hope in the kingdom of heaven and your expectation of seeing God [...], being a son of God, a co-heir of Christ and (dare I say it) becoming divinized: where do all these things come from; who causes them to happen?" ("De Pauperum Amore", 23).

Christian writers often apply the benefits the Israelites received during the Exodus to the graces of Baptism and the Eucharist (cf, e.g., 1 Cor 1.0:1-11). And the Church's liturgy, after recalling, the pillar of fire, the voice of Moses on Sinai, the manna and the water that flowed from the rock, prays that our Lord should be for us, through his Resurrection, the light of life, the word and bread of life (cf. Liturgy of the Hours, Prayer, Lauds, Tuesday of Week 6, Eastertide).
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Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland. Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.