A group of parishioners from my former parish once visited the Holy Land. When I asked the highlights of the trip I expected to hear about Nazareth or Bethlehem. Instead, they gushed about the fact that after traveling around the country when they returned to Jerusalem they found a KFC restaurant. They were ecstatic at finding comfort food. Instead of experiencing something new, they looked for the familiar. The Hebrew children must have had similar feelings. “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 had already forgotten that they were slaves when they sat around those fleshpots! Those were the good old days, we tend to say, forgetting the pains and struggles that constituted the good old days. Jesus challenges his listeners not to get caught in the trap of yearning for what was. When they pursued him after the multiplication of the loaves and fishes he said, Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. Instead of pining for what once was, give thanks for what is and have hope in what will be.
