What else have I in heaven but you? Since I have you, what else could I want on earth? (Psalms 73:25). Hunger and thirst for God is in the heart of every human being. St. Augustine testified to it when he said: “Lord, you created us for your sake, and we are restless until we rest in you.” Perhaps man’s restlessness also has an answer in the Eucharist. The life most of us live is not real life. Real life is offered to us in the Eucharist. Only man fully alive gives glory to God (St. Irenaeus), not just existing, but grasping life fully with all its possibilities, with all its adventure, with all its calls to grow and become all that we can. This is the offer Jesus extends to us. Many who follow the call of Christ do experience physical hunger and thirst—and far worse. Once they belong to Christ, Jesus promises that he will never drive them away. The life that he offers them is not an easy life, but his own life, in which he promises to sustain them forever. When Jesus multiplied the loaves and fed the people they could not see beyond the food and this annoyed Jesus. There is always a deeper hunger, a hunger of the spirit which ordinary bread cannot satisfy. We should be concerned more about the bread of eternal life, the bread which can satisfy our spiritual hunger and thirst. Our spiritual hunger takes many forms: There is the hunger for truth, and Jesus alone can tell the truth about the people and about God; there is the hunger for life, a meaningful life here on earth and the hope of the life here after. There is a hunger for love which things of the world or people here below cannot satisfy; it is a longing for God.  We are all empty, hollow and hungry. It is only in our emptiness that we can be filled, in our confusion that we can be guided, in our weakness that we can be strengthened, in our hunger that we seek food. Let Jesus fill our emptiness, our hollowness and satisfy our never ending hungers (Fr. Jose Kariamadam,  On Your Voyage).

Satisfaction is one of the criterias for happiness in human life. But satisfaction depends on the type and depth of our cravings. When our cravings for the things of the world increase, different means are sought after for its fulfillment. But such satisfaction is momentary and short-lived. The dissatisfied human life is filled with continuous attempts to find fulfillment for the unending cravings. The world offers bubbles of satisfaction through tempting goals and seemingly attractive means. These goals generate cravings for possessions, positions, prestige, prominence and popularity. But we find that the more we have any of these, the greater is our desire for more of it. But God comes to man to offer him total satisfaction if his cravings are for the eternal things. If man is hungry and thirsty for the righteousness of God to be fulfilled in his life and the lives of others around, God will fill such lives to satisfaction. If we drink the lukewarm waters from the broken cisterns of this world, we will be thirsty for more of it. We will become slaves to these temporal earthly mirages and will go to any extent without ever finding an end to it. But if our desire is for God’s priorities in our lives, God will fulfill it through His Spirit and Word. God desires that we draw closer to Him and live by faith in Him and His promises. He desires that what is right in His sight becomes right in our eyes also. Thus we will be willing to lose any temporal gains the world offers. If we have such a hunger for Godly living, God will strengthen us to live a godly life in our generation as in the case of Noah, Job, Joseph and Daniel who lived among people who craved for the temporal.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled (Mathew 5:6).

Elsy Mathew