There comes a time in which we must pack up the past and leave it behind.  The future awaits, unknown and mysterious, calling us to a new way of life.  Life is not meant to be lived and experienced only in the reminiscences of a former way of life.  Life is given to us today as a gift and a grace.  St. Paul cautions us:  “we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain…Behold, now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” (2Cor 6,1f)  God gives us “today” as a gift and a day of salvation to use to grow in the grace of the Holy Spirit that is at work within us.  We remember the past for what it taught us but we bring the gifts of the past into the present so that we can live in the newness of life.  In Christ, every day is a “new” day, full of opportunity.  “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice in it and be glad.” (Ps 118,24)  The Lord is with us each and every day and we should not be afraid of today or the days that follow.  Jesus has instructed us, “Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow till take care of itself.” (Mt 6,34)  We receive the gift and grace of this day, not in vain, and not in anxiety but with joy and wonder at what grace that this day holds for us.

    It is easy to get caught up in a nostalgia for the past.  Rather than facing the truth and the challenges of this day we look back on the past with a sentimental longing for the way that things used to be.  Nostalgia creates a false memory of the past as being an easier and more simple time.  The past is romanticized and becomes a false standard by which we measure our happiness today.  Nostalgia rarely gives us a truthful and objective standard of life but becomes a subjective measure that the present can never live up to.  Caught in the past, we fall into a persistent resentment and bitterness for the present.  We complain and murmur about the current state of our life.  Why can’t things return to the way that they once were?  Why can’t we go back to the way we were before?  

    After leaving Egypt, the Israelites got caught up in the grip of a nostalgia for their former way of life.  “The whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron.  The Israelites said to them, “Would that we had died at the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread!  But you had to lead us into this desert to make the whole community die of famine!” (Ex 16,2-4)  The “bread” of Egypt that the people had taken their fill of was the bread of slavery.  It was truly the “bread of death”.  Challenged by an uncertain future, rather than placing their trust in the Lord and his leadership, the people grumbled and complained in resentment.  They chose death over new life.  It would take many years of wandering in the desert and eating the “daily bread” that the Lord provided for them before they could leave behind their identity as slaves and become the chosen people, the children of God.  For years in the desert, the Israelites carried with them the baggage of their past life of slavery and this hindered them from entering into the new life of the promised land where they would live in a manner that would show that they would “know that I, the Lord, am your God.” (Ex 16,12)  God, in his mercy, gave them bread from heaven each day but this bread was a sign of something greater yet to come.  This bread would perish but Jesus would give to the world “the food that endures for eternal life.” (Jn 6,27)

    St. Paul appeals to the Ephesians to put away their former way of life and put on the new self each day.  “That you should put away the old self of your former way of life, corrupted through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created in God’s way in righteousness and holiness of truth.” (Eph 4,21ff)  The new self hungers for the bread of life that Jesus provides for his disciples.

    Jesus is the true bread of life that the Father has sent down from heaven.  Jesus proclaims, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.” (Jn 6,35)  This bread is given as a gift but we must also work to obtain it.  The work that we must do is the work of packing up the old life and entering into new life through repentance and conversion.  “My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.  For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” (Jn 6,32f)  The bread of life is a gift from heaven but the work that we must do is preparing ourselves to receive it in faith.  “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.” (Jn 6,29)  It is work for us because we are too often busy grumbling, murmuring and yearning for our former way of life rather than striving for righteousness and holiness of truth.  It is work for us to even believe that we are capable of holiness and worthy of God’s grace and favor.  So, pack up the past, we have the work of God to do today!  You can’t receive the bread if you are not willing to do the work!