I have come to the conclusion that when my children were young, there must have been times of extreme famine in our home because I would too often hear them utter, “I’m starving!”
Apparently, this famine becomes more severe when riding in the car and passing a McDonald’s, Burger King, or any other type of fast food joint.
It would often start with whispers in the backseat: “You ask him.”
“No, you ask him.”
“He’s just gonna say ‘no.’”
Then the inevitable question: “Can we stop to get something to eat?”
“No.”
“But we’re starving.”
“We have plenty of food at home.”
“We don’t have anything good.”
“Your mother just went shopping.”
“I don’t want any of that stuff.”
Later, about an hour after dinner, I find one of them holding the refrigerator door open, staring at fully stocked shelves while claiming there is nothing to eat.
It’s as if our children had no faith that we would ever feed them again, even though they have clearly received ample food multiple times a day for their entire lives!
They are not experiencing true hunger – they are just hungering for more.
The day after Jesus multiplied five barley loaves and two fish to feed thousands, according to John’s Gospel, the crowd rushed to the other side of the Sea of Galilee to Capernaum to find Jesus, who realizes that they were only looking for him because they had gotten a free meal the day before. They are still hungry, but don’t quite know what they are hungry for, or what “food” they truly need.
Since the crowd did not interpret what had happened with the loaves and the fish from the perspective that Jesus wishes, He tries to lead them to that deeper meaning. He explains that they should not work for the food that perishes, but work for the food that endures for eternal life, which he, the Son of Man, will give them.
Jesus then reminds them that it is His Father who gives them the true bread from heaven.
The crowd then requests this bread, to which Jesus says: “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”
There is a difference between being hungry and hungering, and between being thirsty and thirsting. When we are hungry and thirsty for earthly things, we may be lacking some necessity, in need of something to eat or drink.
If we are spiritually hungry and spiritually thirsty, it’s because we are lacking spiritually. Maybe we have a casual attitude toward Mass and allow other activities to take precedence. Or maybe we’re too casual at Mass by not fully participating. Perhaps we mindlessly respond instead of deeply pray the prayers we recite. When it comes to what our Catholic Church teaches, maybe we choose only the bits that we want to believe and live by.
This will lead to ravenous spiritual hunger and insatiable thirst.
When we are hungering and thirsting for earthly possessions, we want more and more of what we may already have, leading to spiritual consequences such as idolatry, greed, vulnerability to temptation to sin, and a lack of contentment.
However, if we are spiritually hungering and spiritually thirsting, we are craving more of the divine in our lives. We want to delve more profoundly into the Word of God, into deep prayer, into the teachings of the Church, into devotion to our Blessed Mother, into the lives of the saints, into loving and serving our neighbor.
This will lead to building and strengthening our relationship to Jesus Christ.
Pope Francis said that Jesus – He who is bread – “does not want to be relegated to being considered a side dish, to be overlooked and set aside, or called on only when we need Him.”
Let’s make it our daily practice to fast from earthly things so we have more room on our plate for God, aligning our lives with Jesus’ teaching: “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.”
Deacon Dean Johnson serves at Church of the Holy Family, Sewell.
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