Now see in what terms the sacred writer, the instrument of the Holy Spirit, speaks to us of the manna.
You fed your people with the food of angels, and gave them bread from heaven prepared without labour, having in it all that is delicious and the sweetness of every taste.
For your sustenance showed your sweetness to your children, and serving every man’s will, it was turned to what every man liked.
The Church in the office of the Blessed Sacrament applies these magnificent words to the Eucharist.
We are about to see with what truth and fullness they express the properties of the Eucharistic Bread.
We shall see with how much more reason we can sing of the Sacred Host what the inspired author sings of the manna.
Like manna, the Eucharist is a food, but a spiritual food. It is in the midst of a meal, under the form of food, that Our Lord chose to institute it.
Christ Jesus gives Himself to us as the nourishment of our souls: My Flesh is meat indeed: and My Blood is drink indeed.
Again like the manna, the Eucharist is bread come down from heaven.
But the manna was only an imperfect figure; that is why Our Lord said to the Jews who recalled to him the miracle of the desert:
Moses gave you bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.
Of all the properties that Holy Scripture attributes to the manna, there is one which is particularly remarkable.
The manna was a food which accommodated itself to the taste and wishes of the one who partook of it: serving every man’s will, it was turned to what every man liked.
In the heavenly Bread, the Eucharist, we can also find, if I may thus express myself, the savour of all the mysteries of Christ, and the virtue of all His states.
We are not here considering the Eucharist any longer as a memorial, but as source of grace, and this is a fruitful aspect of the Eucharistic mystery.
If we allow it to penetrate our souls, we shall feel the love and desire for this divine food increase within us.
These are some of the marvels figured by the manna and brought about, for the life and joy of our souls, by the wisdom and bounty of our God.
How can we fall to surround these sacred mysteries with all our reverence and adoration?
Grant us, we beseech you, so to venerate the sacred mysteries of your body and blood!
Columba Marmion (1858-1923): Christ in His Mysteries, 2.18.2-3; from the Monastic Office of Vigils, Wednesday of the Second Week of Eastertide, Year 1.
