(Ceramic fish made by Laura Tarbutton,
on the staff of the Cathedral of St Peter
in Jackson, Mississippi)
Jesus and his disciples try to get away
for some rest and relaxation, but the crowds keep following them. Jesus and his disciples have captured the
imagination and the attention of the people wherever they go. The crowds hunger for something. Jesus realizes that part of this hunger is a
physical hunger, that feeding their physical appetite will not only satisfy one
level of hunger that they have, but it will be a sign that he will be able to
feed the other types of hunger that they have as well. So, with the miracle of the multiplication of
the loaves and the fish, Jesus and the disciples are able to feed the hungry
crowds. The crowds take as much food as
they want until they are satisfied.
Believe it or not, there were still baskets and baskets of food left
over. Through this miracle, the crowds
recognize Jesus as the true prophet of God who has come into their midst.
Physical hunger still exists in our
world today. You don’t have to look
further than those who turn to Manna House for a meal to see the face of hunger
even in our own community of Yazoo City.
But there are other types of hunger that exist in our world as well that
are just as serious. On my pilgrimage to
Spain last April, I met two ladies who were walking the pilgrimage route. Erica was an environmental engineer from the
Bay area in northern California, while Tracy ran drug trials for a large
pharmaceutical company in Georgia. It
sounded like economically, both women were quite successful in their jobs and
were earning a good living. However,
they hungered for something more in their lives, for jobs that fulfilled them more
than on an economic level. Both Tracy
and Erica quit their jobs, which I am sure was not an easy thing to do in this
difficult economy. This hunger for
fulfillment at work and in their lives in general led them to the pilgrims’
trail to the Way of St James in Spain.
They were hoping to find answers and a direction to where God was
calling them.
From the beginning of time, human
beings have wanted to transcend their existence here on earth, to connect with
the divine, to find meaning in something greater than their own existence. Even those of us who are followers of Christ
still feel a hunger in our lives that keeps gnawing away at us. I recently saw the cover article of Newsweek
magazine that talked about how all the modern technology we use isolates us and
causes depression and feelings of isolation and loneliness in so many people in
our society. Yet, more than 50 years
ago, Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk who became one of the most popular Catholic
authors of the twentieth century, had an epiphany while walking the streets of Louisville,
Kentucky. He had already lived in the
Trappist Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky for 17 years. In many ways, he lived a separate life that
put him apart from the rest of the world.
Yet, as he walked amongst the people in this bustling American city, he
felt his connection with humanity and felt a great love for his fellow human
beings. He felt a great joy in being a
member of the human race, in being in solidarity with all of humanity. We can hunger for a more meaningful connect
with our fellow human beings, but what are we doing about it? How does our faith satisfy this hunger,
helping us to serve our brothers and sisters?
Hungering for justice, hungering for
dignity, hungering for peace and for righteousness – these are all other types
of hunger we can feel in our world today.
I just spoke to the prisoners at the Yazoo County regional correctional
facility this week about this particular Gospel reading, in which you can just
imagine the hunger they have for a return to their lives on the outside world,
a return to their families and loved ones.
We hunger for so many things in our lives. But we often turn to the wrong things to
satisfy this hunger: drugs and alcohol, thrills and pleasures, popularity and
social status, material objects and the accumulation of wealth. We search in so many places we may be like
the crowds that Jesus observed in his day, of people who were like sheep
without a shepherd. Yet, the crowds
recognized something special in Jesus.
They raced around the countryside to follow him wherever he went. Yet, Jesus would not let the people carry him
off to become their king. Jesus was not
yet through with his journey, he was still called to follow the will of the
Father. Jesus was not willing to let the
people make him their idol.
What is the hunger that is driving us
in our lives? Do we turn to Jesus to
satisfy that hunger, to find the peace and fulfillment we need in only
him?
No comments:
Post a Comment