Man Does Not Live By Bread Alone

"He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger, and then fed you with manna, a food unknown to you and your fathers, in order to show you that not by bread alone does man live, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the Lord." (Deut 8:3)

I have given a lot of thought about how I am going to

teach my students growing up in this world that celebrates pride and luxury about the divine virtues of humility and poverty. As I read Pope Benedict XVI's Jesus of Nazareth, I have not only become more cognoscente of exactly how brilliant our pope is, but I see how Jesus' redemption, and thus humanity's redemption, is the compelling answer to our modern dilemma.

Benedict XVI so eloquently states, "It is in this world that we are obliged to resist the delusions of false philosophies and to recognize that we do not live by bread alone, but first and foremost by obedience to God's word. Only when this obedience is put into practice does the attitude develop that is also capable of providing bread for all."

The theme of appetite is reoccurring. Temperance of appetite is the quintessential human predicament. Our overindulgence of all goods (food, sex, posessions) has usurped God's primacy. Benedict XVI state's, "At the heart of all temptation, as we see here, is the act of pushing God aside because we perceive him as secondary, if not actually superfluous and annoying, in comparison with all the apparently far most urgent matters that fill our lives."

Benedict XVI makes it clear that we cannot serve God as we should, we cannot assign God His proper place in our lives, until we have first been nourished by the word of God, made manifest in Jesus Christ. And that nourishment compels us to live justly, thus alleviating the injustice that we impose on others.

And then the question arises, how much should and can we do to alleviate injustice? Is it backwards to work for justice, as opposed to working to spread the word of God? If we simultaneously preach the Good News and work for justice, is faith given its proper place?