its ultimate cause is God - 16th week Wednesday

Manna according to scholars comes from the tamarisk tree.  Insect common in the mountains of Sinai would puncture the bark of the tree and drops of resin would come out and solidify in the cold of the night.  It has to be gathered early in the morning because it would deteriorate when the desert becomes hot during the day.  Even today Arabs collect this solid resin which they still use as a sweetener.

Quails migrating from Europe to Africa and vice versa would pass the Sinai peninsula.  This happens especially in May or June.  So when these birds migrate to Europe from Africa they would first rest in the Sinai.  At this point in their migration it would be very easy to catch these birds.

What is my point in telling you this?  That the events narrated in our first reading today about the manna and the quails are all natural phenomena.  It was a natural occurrence.  But for a believer, for a person who sees with the eyes of faith, this was God’s providence, this was God’s grace.  And this was how Israel saw things.  They look at events not in their proximate causes, not in their penultimate causes, but in their ultimate causes.  Why does it rain?  It rains because of the southwest monsoon; it rains because of the prevailing inter-tropical convergence zone.  But when we look at it in its ultimate cause we say it rains because God wills it, it is God’s gift.

Though we are all learned in science and physics and geography, in psychology, it can be helpful to see things in their ultimate causes as God loving ways, as God’s providence, or as the quiet unfolding of God’s mysterious plan for me and you or as God’s gentle reminder.