The scripture proclamations this Sunday can seem particularly appropriate in light of the world's recent financial troubles. God's word challenges us, at this time, to see what are our real Christian standards and ideals. Have we perhaps allowed ourselves to be too much influenced by prevailing economic and social attitudes and ideas? In practice, how different are we from people who do not share our faith in God and our following of Jesus?

The reading from the book of Exodus tells of the people complaining, in the desert, about having lost the luxuries they enjoyed while they were in slavery in Egypt - they'd already forgotten the Lord who took them away from that slavery. Yet He proceeded to give them "bread from heaven", food sufficient for each day, which they could only share but not hoard. Then we hear St Paul urging us towards a new way of life, based on what we've heard from Christ, and different from the aimlessness of people without God. Finally, in the gospel, we hear Jesus trying to lift peoples' eyes to see beyond the merely material food He'd given them. He wants us to see God's caring hands giving us the real "food from heaven" that was prefigured in what Moses did for the ungrateful people in the desert. Doing God's will is taking Jesus seriously, believing in Him who was sent from God, and living accordingly.