Nehemiah 9:20 

Your good spirit you bestowed on them, to give them understanding; Your manna you did not withhold from their mouths, and you gave them water in their thirst.

Meditation

“I'm a self-made man!” “Congratulations, more power to you!”  You're moving up in the world!”  We have all said and heard these expressions, without thinking of their true meaning. When you think about it, it's a scary thought. It gives the impression that we can stand alone and need no one, especially God! Unfortunately, history tends to repeat itself. The Old Testament is the story of each one of us today. Men and women constantly sought power and wealth, families were broken and at war with each other, and almost everyone at sometime and point in their life put God aside, and began worshipping idols. God sent His Son Jesus as testimony of His love for us but our world today tends to function as if Jesus never came! The state of the World today is a wake-up call for all of us to come back to the essential - God! 

As Saint Mother Teresa said: 

“The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love. The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty -- it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There's a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God.”

Mother Teresa says there is a hunger for love and a hunger for God! As Christians we believe that God is Love and that without God, true love cannot exist. It is the definition of the Trinity itself. Saint Augustine gave this definition: God is the lover, Jesus is the beloved and the Holy Spirit is the love shown between them. The love between the Father and the Son is so great that it generates the third person - the Holy Spirit. Much like a husband and wife where their love is so great that a child is born!

Let's get back to Nehemiah and the return of the Jews to Jerusalem after their exile in Babylon. The walls have been built and it is the Feast of Booths which is the  commemoration of their time spent in exile and their dependence on the will of God. They are fasting and wearing sackcloth with their heads covered in dust. The Levites (priests) are leading the people in prayer. It is the longest prayer in the Bible where they looked back on their lives in the hands of God, gave thanks, confessed their sins and asked for forgiveness. Our quote today shows that God provided them with the essentials of life: the Holy Spirit for guidance, manna for food and water for thirst ! 

Meet the Challenge

What more do we need than God (love), water, food, shelter and clothing ? What is essential to my well being and happiness? Which comes first? How do I show God that our relationship is my priority? Take the time this coming week to ponder these questions and make an inventory of your life. Ask yourself where you need to make changes and how. Jesus tells us,

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?' or ‘What shall we drink?' or ‘What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." (Matthew 6: 25 - 34)

Like His Father who gave the Jews "the good spirit, manna and water", Jesus gives us, the most precious gift of all, His body and blood in the Eucharist, granting us everlasting life! 

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and giving it to his disciples said, “Take and eat; this is my body.Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins. (Matthew 26: 26 - 28)

Let's Pray!

Holy Spirit please fill me with a little of your wisdom to understand the teachings of Jesus. Help me to get my priorities right and in accordance with Jesus' teachings. Show me where I have gone wrong. I thank You for each time I have followed your advice. Dear God I so want to trust you more as my Father but I'm having a hard time not being in control. Help me to let go and trust in You because I am your child and only You know what's best for me. Thank you for always being at my side especially when I feel that You have abandoned me.

Let's Praise Him!

 Let us contemplate His goodness!