The Manna of the Messiah

By Scott Ferrier, MJ • Phoenix, AZ

Most of us are familiar with at least the general aspects of the Last Supper which begins the Triduum of Holy Week. We know that Jesus, in celebrating the Pasch with His disciples, was inaugurating the New Passover. As the New Moses, he would lead them on the New Exodus to the Promised Land. We know that the Passover sacrifice featured the sacrifice of an unblemished male lamb. The biblical Passover liturgy described in the Old Testament set the stage for later development in Jewish tradition, as well as its fulfilment in the actions of Jesus during the Last Supper, the first act of His Passion, and to its consummation upon the Cross.

The Israelites’ journey from Egypt to the Promised Land took forty years and was a time of great trial and tribulation. Their fidelity to God was tested over and over. But God sustained them with food for their journey—by providing the miraculous portions of manna rained down from above, a prefigurement of the Eucharist. The mysterious manna was a miraculous gift from God and the sons of Israel ate it for forty years, until they came to the border of the land of Canaan.

At the Last Supper, it was the remembrance of Jesus’ “bread of life” discourse (John 6:35-59) which took center stage. And on the first day after the Resurrection of the Lord, as reported by St. Luke, as two disciples traveled along the road to Emmaus, Jesus drew near and accompanied them, but they did not recognize him. He revealed to them all the things concerning Himself in the Scriptures, but only “became known to them in the breaking of the bread.” He is the living bread which came down from heaven.

The manna was something unknown to the Israelites (‘manna’ means “what is it?”) and is a figure of the Eucharist—the reality of the New Covenant most veiled in mystery. The manna is a figure of the effects of grace in the Eucharist in that God gave each one only as much as was needed each day. It was also the food of angels and “suited to every taste” (cf. Wisdom 16:20-21). The Eucharist gives us the supreme reality of Christ’s life and charity, and, by it, we are nourished in sanctifying grace. Once we reach the heavenly Jerusalem, the Eucharistic nourishment will cease, and we will see God face-to-face.

A jar of manna was conserved in the Tabernacle of the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies, in which God’s presence was adored—a type of the Eucharist which now, thanks be to God, is the object of our adoration (Exodus 16:32-34).