Solemnity of Corpus Christi
Knights of Columbus State Deputies’ Meeting
New Haven, Connecticut
June 7, 2026
Would That We Had Died in Egypt!
Egypt and Israel share a border along the eastern edge of the Sinai Peninsula, and the distance between modern-day Cairo and Jerusalem is about 300 miles. Of course, the journey of the Jewish people from Egypt to the Promised Land wasn’t simply a matter of covering a couple hundred miles. An entire nation was on the move: twelve tribes, men, women, and children, together with provisions, tents, the Commandments, & the Ark of the Covenant. Along the way, they passed through the kingdoms of Edom and Moab, encountering fierce resistance. Even so, we may wonder why the journey of the Israelites lasted 40 years.
As a matter of fact, only two years after the Israelites left Egypt they arrived at the perimeter of the Promised Land. From a base camp in Paran, north of the Sinai Peninsula, Moses sent scouts to inspect the land the Israelites were to take possession of. Their report was both encouraging and discouraging. Encouraging, because it was indeed a land flowing with milk and honey. Discouraging, because the land was heavily defended and its occupants were fierce. Compared to the Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites, and Canaanites, the Israelites thought of themselves as ‘mere grasshoppers’. So what did they do? They raised a cry against God and Moses: “Would that we had died in Egypt!” they cried. Their infidelity and timidity earned them a forty year sojourn.
During their sojourn they became hungry and thirsty. Indeed, the people continually grumbled against Moses and Aaron, but their complaints were really directed at the God who brought them out of Egypt with mighty hand and outstretched arm. Yes, their complaints were many, but the refrain was the same: ‘We were better off in Egypt. We were slaves alright, but at least we had cucumbers, leeks, and melons!’ . . . God was not deaf to their complaint. To satisfy their hunger, God rained down manna from the skies. To slake their thirst, he produced water from the rock. Even so, some of the people wanted to go back to Egypt. The place of their enslavement still had a hold on them.
The Lure of Egypt for Us
I don’t want to get on the wrong side of the Egyptian Chamber of Commerce, but Egypt remains an enduring symbol of enslavement of the Jewish people. Their 400 year residency in Egypt was marked by forced labor and bitter cruelty. Yet, even as they were being rescued from that cruel fate, they looked back on Egypt with perverse nostalgia.
Which brings us to our own journey through the desert. For we too have been rescued from Egypt. St. Paul, for one, praises the Heavenly Father who “. . . delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his Beloved Son” (Col 1:13). By his Cross and Resurrection, Jesus Christ has rescued us from the slavery of sin and death, and opened for us the way to true freedom and joy. But the way to true freedom remains long and hard. It follows, not the wide and spacious way of self-love, but the narrow way of spiritual combat, struggle, suffering, and self-sacrifice. Along this desert road, we can grow weary and nostalgic. We start looking back over our shoulder at Egypt – that is to say, the sins and darkness of heart in which we were enslaved. Worse still, we may find ourselves resisting the rescue because it is easy to grow comfortable in one’s sins. And so it is that we may wander in the desert for more than 40 years!
The Bread of Life
In his mercy, God the Father looks after us in our desert trek. He no longer sends manna from the skies nor supplies water from the rock. Instead, he has given us his Son, “the living bread come down from heaven.” For as Jesus himself proclaims, “…the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world” (Jn 6:51-52). Or again, “my flesh is true food, and my blood true drink” (Jn 6:55). In today’s second reading, St. Paul expresses the same truth: “The cup of blessing, is it not a participation in the Blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the Body of Christ?” (1 Cor 10:16) Unlike manna in the desert which provided physical nourishment, Jesus, the Bread of Life – if we allow him to do so – will nourish us spiritually, & enable us to unite our struggles, failures, and sufferings to his One Sacrifice. In this life, we may never completely escape the lure of our private “Egypts”. But attentive to the Lord’s teaching and his living presence in our souls, we will have the strength we need each day to reject Satan and the attraction of sin. By worthily receiving the Most Blessed Eucharist, Christ’s Body and Blood, we will gladly allow the Crucified and Risen Lord to transfer us, in the power of the Spirit, into the Kingdom of his Heavenly Father, that place of light and peace, joy and grace, truth and freedom.
Knights of the Eucharist
For us, as Knights, the mystery of the Eucharist has special significance. The Eucharist is the “a sign of unity and a bond of charity.” Just as manna in the desert somehow kept the people of Isael together, so too it is the Eucharist that binds the Church together in charity. And it is the Eucharist that enables us, as Knights, to live our principles of charity and unity as a fraternity journeying towards our true homeland in heaven.
A new fraternal year lies before us. It is bright with promise but inevitably will require self-sacrifice. The days and months may pass quickly but oh, the hours can seem long! In the year ahead, let us resolve, not to linger in the desert nor to long for Egypt, but to move ahead – boldly, resolutely, faithfully, and yes, humbly, just as Blessed Michael is urging us to do from his place in heaven. Then it is that we, our brother knights, their wives and their families will experience in themselves the fruits of that redemption which Christ our Redeemer has won for us by his Paschal Mystery, he who lives and reigns with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen. Vivat Jesus!