6th Sunday after Pentecost 21.7.19 Hunger for God
You can take a horse to water but you can't make it drink.
So with faith, we can preach and teach, and exhort and give good example, but
we cannot force anyone to take up the faith. It must come from within.
There would be no point in forcing someone to be a disciple
of Christ because one has to love Him, not just obey Him. And love requires
assent of the will; it cannot be extorted.
We try instead to persuade people to believe in these things
and to act accordingly.
Our Lord wants all His disciples to be thinking about what
they are doing, and to choose voluntarily to serve Him.
It has to be voluntary. He loves us first, then hopes that
we will be induced by that love to return something to Him.
This in turn will complete our formation as human beings;
only when we love God do we become fully human, as God designed us.
So there is a lot of waiting, and hoping going on here.
The Church prays for all the stray children of the world to
find their way to her.
But no force. Each person must find it for himself.
We cannot make you drink but we can put the banquet before
you, and hope it will attract you.
The appeal of our particular banquet is more subtle than the
usual feast.
If people are hungry they will know it and they will be
looking for food.
With spiritual
hunger, however, they may not know they have it.
Many today search for meaning in their lives. They often are
searching in the wrong place.
The nightclubs, the stadiums, the shops, the internet… there
are so many options, but so much confusion also.
The world offers endless activity and multiple distractions
from the main point: which is: are you ready to meet your God in judgment if
you happen to die today?
Are you consciously serving this one true God each day of
your life?
It is easier to be entertained than to probe the depths of
the spiritual life. But unless we probe and seek we will miss the point over
and over again.
Life is not an escape from reality but a claiming of it; a
growing into reality.
Our Lord was concerned for the hunger of the people, not
just the physical hunger. He knew he could fix that because the people would
all want food.
But He was concerned at a deeper level for their souls,
their spiritual hunger. This was much harder to fix because many would deny
there was any such hunger; others would say they can solve it themselves
All those who make wrong turns require a certain amount of
effort from the Church to retrieve.
We call people (including ourselves) back to the main point.
We are to know, love and serve God; to seek Him with all our
hearts and minds; and having found Him to hold on forever (cf Song of Songs 3,4).
The Eucharist will feed us at this deeper level. It will satisfy
our spiritual hunger. It will enable us to take on more of the qualities of
Christ. We will become more like Him in all relevant respects – an outcome much
to be desired.
All are invited; no one is forced. If there is force it is
that of our needs and desires leading us to the food which satisfies, which
transforms us into images of Christ.
Taste and see that the Lord is good (Ps 33 (34), 8).
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