Once a skinny hungry-looking beggar timidly approached a plump and elegantly-dressed doña,
“Ma’am,” he said, “I haven’t eaten in four days.”
“Wow! How did you do it,” the doña exclaimed in admiration, “I wish I had your discipline!”
It seems the doña totally failed to understand the situation of the poor hungry man. Hard to believe that she considers his hunger as a deliberate choice. The woman apparently fails to look beyond herself to see the legitimate concern of the beggar.
In today’s Gospel we have an opposite picture. Jesus knows exactly what the crowd needs, even though they seem a bit confused about it themselves. Jesus not only sees and understands their hunger. He provides an inexhaustible means to satisfying that need.
We must keep in mind that the situation of need can be opportunities to show our trust in God and to deepen our faith.
There is much in our readings today that speaks of “emptiness” and “fullness.” The first reading suggests that a deliberate choice of emptiness can foster a healthy sense of reliance on the Lord. The Israelites are commanded by God to take with them only a day’s portion of manna. Were they to hoard this food, they might tend to develop a false sense of independence.
In the Gospel reading of a few Sundays ago, Jesus gave a similar command to the disciples.
They were to take nothing with them on their missionary journey – no food, no traveling bag, no money – so they would be compelled to trust in the Lord’s providence to sustain them. Without the Lord, we feel certain emptiness.
Do you at times feel that you have everything in life that’s important in your life – a happy family, a good job, and a good income – but still you feel something is missing?
If our answer to this question is yes, then today’s Scripture readings could hold an important message for us. For they remind us of something that we often forget. It’s this:
There are two kinds of hunger in the world. First, there’s a physical hunger, which only food can satisfy. Second, there’s a spiritual hunger, which no food in the world can satisfy. In other words, we can be rich and successful and still feel an incredible hunger inside us.
The story of Tom Phillips is an example. At the age 40, Tom was the president of the largest company in the state of Massachusetts. He has a Mercedes car, a beautiful home, and a lovely family. But Tom Phillips was not happy. In fact, he was downright unhappy. Something was missing in his life, but he didn’t know what it was.
Then one night, during a business trip to New York, something happened to him. Tom Phillips had a religious experience that changed him forever. Speaking of that experience, he said: “I saw what was missing [from my life]. It was Jesus Christ. I hadn’t ever… turned my life over to him.”
And that night Tom did just that. And that night Tom’s life changed in a way that brought him a happiness he never dreamed existed. Tom had a friend named Charles Colson. He too was a successful man. In his own words, Colson had “an office next to the president of the United states, a six-figure income, a yacht, a limousine, and a chauffer.”
But he too was an unhappy man. He had a “gnawing hollowness” deep inside him. Something was missing from his life, but he didn’t know what it was.
Then one August night in 1973, Tom Phillips told Charles Colson about his conversion. And the more Colson listened, the more he became convinced that Tom Phillips had just put his finger on
what was causing the “gnawing hollowness” deep inside him. He too was hungering for something. And now, for the first time in his life, he had an insight into what it was. Charles Colson left the Phillips home that night knowing exactly what he must do.
He hadn’t driven 100 yards from the house when he pulled up alongside the road and began to cry so loudly that he was afraid the Phillips family might hear him. Describing what happened next, Colson said, “I prayed my first real prayer.” It went like this: “God, I don’t know how to find you, but I’m going to try! I’m not much the way I am now, but somehow I want to give myself to you.”
He then added: “I didn’t know how to say more, so I repeated over and over the words: “take me.” Colson began to crisscross the country preaching the Gospel wherever he can, especially in prisons and on college campuses.
From the Israelites, through those who sought out Jesus at the lakeside, to this community of believers today, people have come before God in their need – wounded, broken and vulnerable.
We learn again today a familiar lesson – that those who believe and trust in the Lord will have their longing turned into joy, their emptiness gently filled by a God, who knows exactly what they need.
Saints are men and women, who also have dreams and fears, talents and blind-spots, good days and bad days when they may not feel like talking to God. They are people who finally concluded that God’s grace is sufficient. Their lives still had scary moments, but they are grounded in the virtues of faith, hope, and love. The only saints who had it easy are statues.
Some of God’s blessings come in disguise. Because we tend to think that we know what is best for us, we might not readily recognize the Lord’s intervention.
Who would suspect that the cannon ball that shattered the leg of Ignatius would be the occasion of his conversion, which in turn would lead him to the founding of the Society of Jesus at the service of the Church?
The people in today’s Gospel ask for the bread that gives life to the world. Jesus offers it in the Eucharist. Our hunger for Jesus should grow as we grow.
A girl making her First Communion cannot hunger for Jesus quite the way her faith-filled middle-age mother can. A young man cannot hunger for Jesus quite the way his prayerful grandfather can. Jesus expects the best that we can offer at our present stage of life.
God is feeding all of us here today although we come with different feelings and life experiences. God helps us not to be afraid of drawing close to Him and to one another, always sharing the divine life.
In the Eucharist, Jesus offers himself as our help and guide. It is Jesus himself we receive. Do we recognize Him in the living Bread who gives life? Do we receive Him with faith and reverence?
The Eucharist provides the strength we need to put our faith into practice – even if we feel we have achieved only very ordinary results.
We may want to make our own the prayer of Charles Colson at the moment of his conversion: “God, I don’t know how to find you. But I’m going to try! I’m not much the way I am now, but somehow I want to give myself to you Take me! Take me!” Amen.