I had to dig to remember a fleshpot. It was a large boiler that could boil large amounts of meat or other foods. The Egyptian enslavers operated fleshpots to feed the enslaved people under their rule. In the First Reading, the Israelites complained to Moses and Aaron that it would have been better that they had died in Egypt because there, they had fleshpots to have their fill. In the desert, they had nothing. They were enslaved by Egypt.

Life presents two options for us. We can either eat from the fleshpots of our desires being filled by pride, sex, and money, or we can seek our food elsewhere – in God! The psalmist talks about the sea and all the living things that are great and small and the monsters God made. All these creatures look to God, God opens his hands and fills their desires (Psalm 104). If God fills the hunger of all his creatures, how much more will he fill the desires of our hearts?

God led his people to freedom by leading them through the desert so they might depend on him and that he might provide for them. He led his people out of Egypt, and during these forty years, he purged Egypt out of his people. His people continued to disobey and worship false gods in the desert. In today’s passage, we hear of their grumbling and the desire to satisfy their hunger.

God gives them quail and manna. God gives his people flesh and bread! This imagery of flesh and bread foreshadows the Eucharist! Jesus recapitulates this story in today’s Gospel. He did not want his people to focus on the multiplication of the loaves but instead on the true bread that had come down from heaven. When we focus on our Eucharistic faith rooted in Jesus, we are renewed in the spirit of our minds and put on the new self. Everyone who feeds on Jesus recognizes their purpose as being the image of Christ. Once again, this emphasizes that we are not to live for God. We are to live from him. We eat his body and drink his blood as we walk through the desert of our lives, trusting in him that he will sustain us for this journey. Be our food, Jesus!