Memorial of Saint Catherine of Siena, virgin and doctor of the Church
What are you hungry for? That’s a question that I routinely pose to my family as we plan our dinner menus for the coming week and prepare to shop for groceries. As I type these words, with a sense of deep humility I remember the materially poor, as well. Those who struggle financially may simply be hungry. It’s not a matter of what sounds good to eat, they are just desperate to obtain food, any food. Every living creature experiences physical hunger. Not all of us have experienced a desperate kind of hunger, however, a terrifying kind of hunger that threatens the very essence of life itself. As we reflect on today’s Gospel, I wonder, What are you hungry for? Jesus addresses a very real, very deep hunger that is common to every human being throughout all of time. For what do you hunger and thirst in the depths of your being, in your very essence?
When I read Jesus’ words, I am the bread of life, something inside me rises up and comes alive. I can feel it deep within me, as real as if it were a physical sensation. I wonder what Jesus’ words evoke in you. I am the bread of life . . . what do you feel, sense, experience as you allow our Lord’s words to resound within you? Jesus responds to humanity’s deepest most earnest hunger – the hunger of our souls, of our hearts, of our flesh. Unsatisfied, the hunger of the human soul and heart is just as terrifying and intense as physical hunger. If we do not allow the Bread of Life to nourish that desperate hunger within us, we turn to other things. We satisfy ourselves with our intellectual abilities, physical stimulation or pleasures, material things, wealth, addictions, the list goes on and on.
And so, I ask myself, To what extent am I in touch with my essence’s hunger and thirst? Several scriptures come to mind helping me answer this question.
As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. Ps. 42:1,2
My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Ps. 84:2
You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water. Ps. 63:1
My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you. Isaiah 26:9
Often when I encounter scriptures like these, I’m stopped dead in my tracks! Coming face to face with declarations like these, I must ask myself, are those statements utterly true in my life? Am I aware of the panting and thirsting of my soul, and do I seek God and God alone for satisfaction? Am I able to hear the desperate cries of my heart and my flesh when they groan for the living God, or am I deaf to the needs of my own being? Can I honestly and authentically say with the psalmist, God, I earnestly seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you? I think it’s when I am deaf and insensitive to the deep hunger and thirst of my entire being – body, soul, and spirit that I live in an impoverished state of starvation seeking to quench my hunger and thirst with things of this world and not of God.
How about this part of the prayer for spiritual communion that we’re praying right now during the live stream of the Mass: “My Jesus, I love you above all things, and I long for you in my soul.” I’ve really been humbled and struck deeply by that statement, and I ask myself, do I really love Jesus above all things? Do I truly long for him in my soul?
Oh, my Jesus, how desperately I want all of these truths from your Word and the declarations from that prayer to be true in my life! Come, O Bread of Life, come and satisfy my starving soul. I believe you when you assure me that I will never hunger or thirst in you. Thank you for promising me that I will never be rejected or lost; thank you for the indescribable gift of eternal life in you. Thank you that we are indeed Easter people filled with resurrection power through the Holy Spirit. Thank you for responding to the cries of my heart, my flesh, and my soul and helping me to fall ever more deeply in love with you this day. O Bread of Life, come and satisfy our entire IC parish family this day and help us to love others more perfectly by having been filled by you. Amen!
- Elizabeth Wourms