Thursday - 3rd Week of Easter 2017 - Deepening our Spiritual Hunger for God

All of this week, our Gospel readings are taken from the sixth chapter of Saint John’s Gospel.  The sixth chapter of John is usually known as the “Bread of Life Discourse” because in it, Jesus speaks of Himself, as we heard today, as the Bread of Life.  In fact, Jesus refers to himself as the ‘Bread of Life’ 11 times.

St. John Vianney said, “The soul hungers for God, and nothing but God can satiate it.  Therefore He came to dwell on earth and assumed a Body in order that this Body might become the Food of our souls"

Spiritual hunger is different than physical hunger.  With physical food, the more I eat the less hungry I am.  With the spiritual food that God gives, the more I eat, the more I hunger.

This is why the saints seem to crave God more than we do. This is also why 75% of Catholics who do not go to Church are not banging on the doors to receive the Eucharist which they have denied themselves.  With spiritual food, the less you eat, the less you notice the hunger. Plenty of false spiritual food from our culture is available every minute of the day; the false spiritual food leaves us unhappy and exhausted.

Saint John Paul II wrote in one of his last letters to the Church: “God has placed in human hearts a “hunger” which will be satisfied only by full union with him. Eucharistic communion was given so that we might be “sated” with God here on earth, in expectation of our complete fulfillment in heaven.
No philosophy or scientific discovery or piece of technology or earthy pursuit can satisfy our spiritual cravings.  No amount of money, success, fame, or power.  Only Jesus can fully satisfy.

Do you crave Him? If not, eat more! Serve more, love more.

With physical food, the hungrier we are, we start to get grumpy, cranky, weak, “hangry” as they say these day, is when you are so hungry you are angry. This is why there is so much anger in our culture these days, we do not hunger enough for God.

 But with Christ, and this is definitely a paradox of our faith, the more we hunger for Him the happier we are, the more at peace, the stronger we are. What a beautiful paradox! “Blessed are those who hunger for Him, for they will be filled” for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That the Church, which draws her life from the Eucharist, may worship this mystery with ever deeper faith and devotion, we pray to the Lord...

That Christians may always approach the Eucharist worthily, in full communion with the teachings and practices of the Church, we pray to the Lord...

That all God's children may have sufficient bread for their physical life and the Bread of Life for their spiritual life, we pray to the Lord...

That those who have died may share the eternal life that Jesus promised to those who feed on the Bread from Heaven, we pray to the Lord...