The Road to Freedom is Always a Difficult One
In the first reading this week, we see the Israelites complaining and grumbling while on their journey to freedom. They had been held captive for about 400 years and God through Moses led them out of Egypt. It was a long road to the Promised Land, they were tired, hungry and became restless. They began to long for the little pleasures they had in Egypt while they were slaves.
Ask anyone who has been enslaved in any form of addiction or wants, the road to free oneself from the bondages of pleasure is a difficult one. ‘It is always hard to see the purpose in wilderness wanderings until after they are over’ (John Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress). It is a difficult journey to put the old self away and to be renewed in the spirit (Eph 4:17, 20-24).
Long journeys are always a test of faith and endurance. Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way, I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions” ( Ex 16:4). God gives us ‘manna’ for each day and we are to collect it every day. Just as the Israelites became restless on their long journey, we too are likely to become restless when trials come and thus we need to collect graces every day.
“If and when a horror turns up you will then be given Grace to help you. I don’t think one is usually given it in advance. ‘Give us our daily bread’ (not an annuity for life) applies to spiritual gifts too; the little daily support for the daily trial. Life has to be taken day by day and hour by hour.” C. S. Lewis
Jesus tells us“Do not work for food that goes bad; instead, work for the food that lasts for eternal life” (Jn 6:27) and He is the bread of life. Our sustenance for life comes from God and if we are to experience true freedom, we cannot rely on worldly sustenance. No amount of wealth, power, pleasure or honour will sustain us. We need the daily graces that God gives us to see us through each day.
We need God to free us from every form of indifference, selfishness and self-sufficiency.
Pope Francis
So make it a point each morning to collect your ‘manna’ that God gives- ask him for that grace to walk through the day’s journey. There are many pitfalls and temptations- a tendency to revert to our old-selves; only through His ‘manna’ can we make this journey to freedom from all kinds of slavery.
“Thus, a good man, though a slave, is free; but a wicked man, though a king, is a slave. For he serves, not one man alone, but what is worse, as many masters as he has vices.”
― Augustine of Hippo, City of God