The BreadCast

Ex.16:1-5,9-15;   Ps.78:18-19,23-28;   Mt.13:1-9)   “I will now rain down bread from heaven for you.”   He gives us bread to eat; He gives us wine to drink.  All our food comes from His hand.  He provides for our every need.  It is not by our own strength we are fed.  It is not by our own strength we produce fruit to feed others.  All our grain is from His hand and grows only with His blessing. Th...

(Ex.14:5-18;   Ex.15:1-6;   Mt.12:38-42)   “The Lord Himself will fight for you; you have only to keep still.”    But the scribes and the Pharisees cannot keep still, cannot hold faith firmly in their hearts, but are anxious for a sign.  But it is “an evil and unfaithful age” that is “eager for a sign,” and so no sign will bring it salvation.  Jesus indeed will die and rise again, but it will be o...

(Ex.12:37-42;   Ps.136:1,10-15,23-24;   Mt.12:14-21)   “All the Israelites must keep a vigil for the Lord throughout their generations.”   After four hundred and thirty years, as one man the Israelites left the land of Egypt.  More than a million people all told were “rushed out of Egyptand had no opportunity even to prepare food for the journey.”  And so the exodus from sin we all must make is he...

(Ex.11:10-12:14;   Ps.116:12-13,15-18;   Mt.12:1-8)   “The Son of Man is indeed the Lord of the sabbath.”   “There is something greater than the temple here,” greater than the Passover and all the feasts of the Lord, greater than the Law… for Jesus and His mercy subsume all these by His holy sacrifice, by His very presence amongst us.  And now on the new sabbath day, the words of the psalmist are...

(Ex.3:11-20;   Ps.105:1,5,8-9,24-27;   Mt.11:28-30)   “My yoke is easy and my burden light.”   I AM has come and led His people “up out of the misery of Egypt,” up out of slavery.  The heavy yoke of sin He breaks from our necks, and in its place we find His gentle presence. How this world can make us weary!  How the Israelites suffered under the iron hand of the Pharaoh.  But the Lord says to them...

(Ex.3:1-6,9-12;   Ps.103:1-4,6-8;   Mt.11:25-27)   “An angel of the Lord appeared to him in fire flaming out of a bush.”   The Lord appears to Moses.  “The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob,” reveals Himself on Horeb, the mountain of God.  He comes to him who, as we are told elsewhere, is the humblest of men, calling him – much as He will later call Peter, James, and John from the...

(Ex.2:1-15;   Ps.69:3,14,30-31,33-34;   Mt.11:20-24)   “I drew him out of the water.”   Moses was drawn from “the watery depths” by Pharaoh’s daughter and nursed by his own mother.  Into the river all male Hebrew children were ordered cast, but by the providential hand of God, this “Moses” is saved.  And it is through him his people shall be drawn out from amongst the Egyptians and the slavery put...

(Ex.1:8-14,22;   Ps.124:1-8;   Mt.10:34-11:1)   “The more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread.”   The Israelites lived and worked side by side with the Egyptians for some four hundred years; they had virtually become members of the same household.  But jealousy overcame a “new king” of Egypt, who determined “to oppress them with forced labor,” hoping to break their will as wel...

(Gn.49:29-32,50:15-24;   Ps.105:1-4,6-7,33;   Mt.10:24-33)   “Whoever acknowledges me before men I will acknowledge before my Father in heaven.”   Joseph does well in acknowledging God before his brothers, as, refusing to take revenge on them, he states of his suffering that “God meant it for good.”  He thus proves himself a servant of the Lord; realizing that “no pupil outranks his teacher, no sl...

(Gn.46:1-7,28-30;   Ps.37:3-4,18-19,27-28,39-40;   Mt.10:16-23)   “Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you a great nation.”   We are as exiles in this world.  Indeed, the Lord sends us forth “like sheep among wolves.”  In Egypt must we dwell for a time, until we are prepared for the coming of Christ. But here He meets us.  Here He weeps over us and so enables us to face the...

(Gn.44:18-21,23-29,45:1-5;   Ps.105:5,16-21;   Mt.10:7-15)   “It was really for the sake of saving lives that God sent me here ahead of you.”   Remarkable words from the mouth of Joseph as the brothers who sold him into slavery in Egypt stand dumbfounded before him, fearing indeed for their own lives.  And indeed Joseph may have been justified to command the ending of their lives to avenge his tre...

(Gn.41:55-57,42:5-7,17-24;   Ps.33:2-3,10-11,18-19,22;   Mt.10:1-7)   “The eyes of the Lord are upon those who fear Him.”   In our gospel, Jesus commissions the twelve apostles to go forth after “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” in order “to expel unclean spirits and cure sickness and disease of every kind” and bring His people into “the reign of God.”  In our first reading, we see that “fam...

(Gn.32:23-33;   Ps.17:1-3,6-8,15;   Mt.9:32-38)   “You test my heart, searching it in the night.”   “You have contended with divine and human beings,” the angel says of Jacob; and so he receives his new name, Israel: “he strives with God”.  Such striving with the Lord in this night which has set upon the earth is our lot in life.  May we prevail upon Him as has Jacob. As he is about to reenter the...

(Gn.28:10-22;   Ps.91:1-4,14-15;   Mt.9:18-26)   “Know that I am with you; I will protect you wherever you go.”   What the Lord says here to Jacob, He says indeed to all of us:  He will protect us on our journey; let us but take refuge in Him.  Our dearest Jesus is the abode of God, and in Him our souls are safe. As Jacob sets forth alone from the land of Canaan, he fears that he shall not return...

(Gn.27:1-5,15-29;   Ps.135:1-6;   Mt.9:14-17)   “Pour new wine into new wineskins, and in that way both are preserved.”   “Jacob.”  The name means “the supplanter”.  Here he supplants his twin brother, Esau, whose name means “red earth”.  Though born second, Jacob receives the blessing of the firstborn.  Of what significance is this supplanting, is this blessing of Jacob, who is to be “Israel”, an...

(Gn.23:1-4,19,24:1-8,62-67;   Ps.106:1-5;   Mt.9:9-13)  “In his love for [Rebekah] Isaac found solace after the death of his mother Sarah.” And of this love Jacob shall be born; and from him shall come the twelve tribes of Israel, who shall people the earth as the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham. Sarah had died and “Abraham had now reached a ripe old age.”  Now conscious of his mortality, Ab...

(Gn.21:5,8-20;   Ps.34:7-8,10-13;   Mt.8:28-34) “When the afflicted man called out, the Lord heard, and from all his distress He saved him.” Ishmael is the model of the afflicted man calling out to the Lord and being heard in all his distress.  His very name means “he whom God hears” and indeed we see clearly today how, though “it is through Isaac that descendants shall bear [Abraham’s] name,” non...

(Gn.19:15-29;   Ps.26:2-3,9-12;   Mt.8:23-27)   “Even the winds and the sea obey Him.”   “The Lord rained down sulphurous fire upon Sodom and Gomorrah,” and “without warning a violent storm came up on the lake, and the boat began to be swamped by the waves.”  The Lord saved Lot from the destruction of Sodom, and Jesus calmed the winds and the sea, saving the disciples; but how little faith either...

(Gn.18:16-33;   Ps.103:1-4,8-11;   Mt.8:18-22)   “While the two men walked on farther toward Sodom, the Lord remained standing before Abraham.”   “Then Abraham drew nearer to Him…” A marvelous scene.  First, as Abraham walks along with the Lord, we hear the Lord’s thoughts.  The Lord wishes to share His plans with him, not to act apart from His blessed one.  He tells Abraham of the imminent destru...

(Gn.18:1-15;   Lk.1:46-50,53-55;   Mt.8:5-17)   “Is anything too marvelous for the Lord to do?”   Our theme again is faith.  Do we believe as Abraham, as Mary, as the centurion?  Only such trust will save us. In our first reading the Lord appears to Abraham.  We have here the marvelous scene of faith being born, being conceived.  Abraham sits patiently, waiting, praying – expectant of the Lord’s r...

(Gn.16:1-12,15-16;   Ps.106:1-5;   Mt.7:21-29)   “Anyone who hears my words but does not put them into practice is like the foolish man who built his house on sandy ground.”   The Lord hears our words and answers our cries, but He is not so interested in these as in our listening to His voice and remaining obedient to Him.  His desire is that we always strive to do His will; the recounting of our...

(Gn.15:1-12,17-18;   Ps.105:1-4,6-9;   Mt.7:15-20)   “Abram put his faith in the Lord, who credited it to him as an act of righteousness.”   In our gospel today, Jesus teaches us, “You can tell a tree by its fruit.”  And what can we tell of Abram but that he is a bountiful tree, faithful and strong.  Indeed, in his faith is his goodness, and in his children, who reach down even unto this day, his...

(Gn.12:1-9;   Ps.33:12-13,18-20,22;   Mt.7:1-5)   “The eyes of the Lord are upon those who fear Him.”   There is a plank in our own eye; there is but a speck in our brother’s.  This is what the Lord sees.  And this is what we see if we fear the Lord.  If we fear the Lord, we remain humble before Him.  If we fear the Lord, we will be released from judgment.  If we fear the Lord, we indeed will be a...

(2Cor.12:1-10;   Ps.34:8-13;   Mt.6:24-34)   “Seek first His kingship over you, His way of holiness, and all these things will be given you besides.”   The call to treasure in heaven continues.  What care we for the things of this earth?  What is money, what are food and clothing to us?  Indeed, they must not be our concern.  And what matter to us is our bereavement of these things and other like...

(2Cor.11:18,21-30;   Ps.34:2-7,18;   Mt.6:19-23)   “Store up heavenly treasure, which neither moths nor rust corrode nor thieves break in and steal.”   It is clear where Paul’s treasure lies, and where it does not lie.  In the litany of the sufferings and afflictions he has endured as a “minister of Christ,” we understand without question his utter lack of concern for the things of this world.  Ho...