I Will Refresh You
THE FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT
The Holy Scriptures and Christian Tradition are rich with symbolism, in particular, the symbolic meaning found in numbers. Jacob, whose name God changed to Israel, had twelve sons who were the fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel. We see the tribes of Israel symbolized in the twelve apostles chosen by Jesus, who would become the foundation and pillars of the New Testament Church, which St. Paul refers to as the Israel of God (Gal 6:16).
Perhaps you remember the Prophet Jonah, who lay dead in the belly of a large fish some three days until the Lord brought him from the land of Sheol, the place of the dead. And, having been brought from death to life, he, like Lazarus, comes forth from the mouth of death to bring the Gospel to the great pagan city of Nineveh. To the Pharisees, our Lord would give no sign except the sign of Jonah.
Like Jonah, Christ would be swallowed by death and lie three days in the belly of the earth. After three days, he too was raised from the dead, springing forth from the belly of a tomb that could not hold him. Being the greater Jonah, the Gospel message which thrust into the world would not merely be preached to convert one pagan city, but the entire Roman Empire within two generations through the Apostolic proclamation.
And such is the case with the forty days of Lent. These forty days, of course, recall the forty days of Jesus' fasting and temptation in the wilderness. He is the greater Elijah (1 Kings 19:8), for he did not eat before he fasted but went into the desert sustained wholly by the Word of God.
And of course, Christ's fast recalls the forty years of Exodus, Israel's journey from captivity in Egypt and their journey to the promised land of freedom; led by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night; fed by Divine manna which fell from the skies; their thirst miraculously quenched from water which flowed from a stony rock. And within this rich and complex Exodus tapestry are illuminating purposes and instruction for our Lenten journey.
The Exodus narrative isn't merely historical facts, although biblical history and data are essential. Biblical history is important but affords only limited spiritual guidance. Unless we understand and interpret history theologically, or to be more precise, Christologically, then we are limiting the power and insight given in the revelation of the Old Testament. Christ is the key that unlocks the meaning of the Old Testament, the lens through which we read and understand. Which is why St. Paul is acute in revealing to us the many correspondences and applicability between the Old and New people of God found in the two Testaments. To the Corinthians, he writes, "Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world have come" (1 Cor 10:11).
Israel then is much more than just a historical people; they are our forefathers, given as an example to us the Church as a mirror in which we all too often see ourselves staring back. The history of Israel has hidden within it, spiritual understandings and meanings that transcend time and place. This is why when we read of their Exodus, we realize that in some way, we participate in it as well. We not only comprehend and share in their historic event, we somehow appropriate it to ourselves, and experience Exodus: no less real; no less historic. Of course, here we are in the realm of Holy mystery.
It was in the wilderness that God refined his people. The desert difficulties certainly brought out the worst in them, for it was the place of testing and thereby the location of their refinement. And, friends, our Lenten Exodus is nothing short of an intense diagnostic exercise meant to uncover the real condition of the soul. Even a novice, with earnest intent, will find one's own Exodus to be as the Israelites: one of alienation, exile, bondage, and captivity in a foreign land. Spiritually, it means alienation from God, separation from our proper home, and our wandering through a barren wilderness, a place of trials and temptations, from which we are striving to return.
Then, there is the journey's destination, the promised land, the City of Jerusalem, the house of God, the place of peace and reconciliation. Spiritually this means finding our true home, the beautiful, perfect, and eternal good, for which the soul yearns. A yearning beautifully articulated by the psalmist who writes, "Like as the heart desireth the water-brooks, so longeth my soul after thee, O God. My soul is a thirst for God, yea, even for the living God. When shall I come to appear before the presence of God?" (Ps 42). Oh, how the soul longs to one day be with Christ in the Holy City of Jerusalem, which is the eternal abode of Divine happiness.
There is the idea of divine sustenance and guidance through the exodus journey. Spiritually, this means the Providence of God, His watchful care, and divine nourishing of our beleaguered bodies and weary souls with His grace, generously given to us in word and sacrament. Alienation, and homecoming, even under the providence of God: that is the story of Israel: forty years of Exodus from Egypt, and forty years of captivity in Babylon. Symbolically, it is the story of the struggle of the human soul as it journeys homeward back to its Creator. It is the symbol (the shadow or type), the substance of which is Christ's journey through death and resurrection, in which we follow him on this forty-day Exodus.
Lent represents to us a pilgrimage, the inner journey of the soul, struggling in the wilderness of trials and temptations, seeking a spiritual Jerusalem, the homeland of the spirit. This wilderness, you see, is not some external place, or some external circumstance; it is nothing but the soul's confused, unfruitful life before it finds its meeting-place in God.
The wilderness sojourn is for the Christian the inner journey of the soul, for the sake of transformation and conformity unto the Divine, as it finds renewal of the mind by the knowledge of Christ, gracious providence of the Fathers loving revelation. This is the underlying theme of Lent—the journey to Jerusalem—and it is in that context that we should think about our scripture lessons appointed for these Lenten Sundays.
The lessons for the past three Sundays have all been about trials and temptations, about Jesus' fasting and temptations in the wilderness, and the rebuking and casting out of devils. Those demons represent and correspond to spiritual realities, that are not easily dismissed. They are the false passions and attachments and ideals which certainly exist and enter in, and powerfully possess the soul.
That is to say, they are the false gods we so readily entertain, and foolishly set our hearts upon, and thus separate ourselves from the true and living God. We entered into Lent knowing it could very well be a fight, a battle against sin, the flesh, and the devil; our Lenten labor, the cultivation of the virtuous life which mirrors that of Christ; of course this work is one of faith empowered and sustained by the grace of God and to be taken on with humility and soberness.
If you recall, last Sunday's Gospel taught the casting out of demons is not enough—for the soul swept clean, if it remains vacant, is vulnerable to new and more persuasive fallacies and unholy vice, the number wanting to enter and make us captive once again, is legion. And thus, today's appointed readings speak to us of spiritual refreshment and nourishment, the filling of the soul with the Heavenly Manna from above.
And this is why the Gospel appointed for this fourth Sunday in Lent recounts the story of our Lord's refreshing the multitude in the wilderness through a miraculous feeding of over five thousand men, women, and children, by multiplying a few loaves and a couple of fish. For through this miracle, Christ brings refreshment to the people. In addition, today's Epistle calls us to rejoice in the promise of the free and heavenly Jerusalem, who is "the mother of us all." For, we are children of the promise, born not of the bondwoman, but of the free. Christ is the redeemer of every freeborn child.
Refreshment and rejoicing. And so, this particular Sunday is commonly known as "Laetare Sunday," and also "Refreshment Sunday." 'Laetare' meaning 'Rejoice'! Which is the first part of the ancient Introit appointed for this Sunday. 'Refreshment' coming from the classical Latin name "Dominica Refectionis," or "Refreshment Sunday." Different names but one fundamental and essential thought: our Exodus from the bondage of sin and the homeward journey of the soul is solely accomplished and sustained by Christ himself: He alone is our refreshment and our cause for rejoicing. And we are led to contemplate this sublimity of this beautiful truth in St. Luke's miraculous account of the feeding of the five thousand.
Now, it is not by coincidence that Luke's Gospel story parallels Israel's Exodus; there's something he wants us to see; something to apprehend. In the Exodus account, you may recall that God first performed signs against Pharaoh then gave instructions to Moses, which would keep Israel safe at the time of the Passover. In the Gospel, multitudes are following Christ because of his signs (you see his miracles they have drawn the people out to be healed), and similarly, this is taking place at Passover as well as Luke tells us in verse four.
In the Exodus, the Jews were said to eat unleavened bread because they were hastily driven out of Egypt and had brought no provisions for themselves (Ex 12:39). Here Jesus feeds the multitudes with earthly bread because in their haste to see the miracle worker, they had brought no provisions for themselves or their children. In the Exodus, Moses leads the people across the Red Sea, walking on the dry ground amid the water. If we were to continue reading the remainder of Luke's account, we would see Christ sending His disciples across the sea and then miraculously walking on the sea as if it were dry ground. In the Exodus, God heard and saw the great multitude, his children, and fed His people manna: bread rained down from heaven. "And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. And Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples this prefigures the Eucharist instituted by our Lord, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would."
The miraculous feeding of the five thousand in the wilderness evokes the image of the manna given to Israel in the desert. What wonderful symmetry! You see, what Christ declares by this miracle is to be none other than the Heavenly Manna himself! "Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world" (vv. 32-22). Jesus' body is the bread given for the life of the world.
Beloved, He that sustained the lives of his people Israel in their wanderings is the same Lord who sees our need and hears our complaints, it is he who nourishes the body and the soul: "I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eats of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world" (Jn 6:48-51). Jesus is the True Manna, which has come from heaven. He himself, his body and blood, is the abundant, life-giving food of Divine Providence that sustains and keeps alive within us the vision of Jerusalem, the city of our freedom, our native land of pure and perfect good.
"Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live forever" (vv. 53-58).
How quickly the children of Israel forgot the God of their Exodus. Within forty-five days of being delivered from the bondage of Egypt, we learn from the sixteenth chapter of the book of Exodus, that "the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron, "Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger." Israel no longer believed. They no longer had faith in God's ability to fill their bellies. Their present predicament pushed out the memory of their redemption, the knowledge of the One by whom salvation came. God was incapable, he was absent, the hope and promise he offered… no better than pots of flesh and earthly bread.
But friends, listen. Listen to God's gracious response to his children. "Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you." Not, "I will destroy this people", not 'silence', not "I will abandon you in my anger", no! Instead, ungrateful and doubting hearts are met with grace. "I will rain bread from heaven for you." And this bread is Jesus. And he bids us come, "come unto me all who are weary and heavy-laden, I will refresh you!" Not with Israel's manna, which lasted only a day before spoiling, no! But with the eternal and life-giving bread of his body, the life-giving cup of his blood.
Let us believe and trust in God, not doubting as Phillip and Andrew, but with full confidence, let us pray, "give us this day our daily bread." So let us prepare our hearts to ascend unto the Lord, believing that in Him, there is refreshment; in him, there is eternal life. So come, feast on Him, not only for the nourishment of the body but of your immortal soul. Come, all who are weary and heavy-laden and find rest. East and be satisfied. Come, and I will refresh you. Amen+
