2nd Sunday after Pentecost 29.5.16 Spiritual hunger
May this Holy Communion bring about a perfect union with Thee, the one true God, and at last enable me to reach eternal bliss when Thou will call me. I pray that Thou bring me, a sinner, to the indescribable Feast where Thou, with Thy Son and the Holy Spirit, are to Thy saints true light, full blessedness, everlasting joy, and perfect happiness. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen. (St Thomas Aquinas)
Happiness from above can be understood only if we are see it in its mysterious and subtle workings.
The Gospel speaks of our being invited to a banquet (an image of Heaven). At this banquet we will eat heavenly food (Holy Communion).
The benefits of heavenly food are deeper and not so obvious to a worldly mind.
If we were offered a choice between this food and earthly food, we might be tempted to take the earthly food.
We know what it is to be physically hungry, and we might say that is more urgent than to be spiritually hungry. Or, if we acknowledge the spiritual hunger, we might say we can deal with that any time, but for now I need food, or some other physical need.
From a worldly point of view it is easy to scoff at invisible benefits.
‘You want me to be good - well I am that anyway, or at least I could be with a little effort.’
People minimise the effort involved in living a truly good life; and they also minimise the eternal dimension of their existence – not really facing the choice between Heaven and Hell.
Their goals are firmly in this life, not the next. They seek all their happiness here, and therefore have a very limited vision of the happiness offered by the Gospel.
So our invitations to the banquet are often thrown in the bin! Even a free meal is rejected.
But we have accepted the invitation. What do we expect to gain from being here?
There may not be obvious change. We would hope to leave this Mass a better person than when we came. It might take many Masses to make a visible difference. Some of our faults take a lot of extricating.
We must not be quick to dismiss these hidden workings of grace, just because they are not visible or instant.
Many things in nature move slowly (like the growth of a tree); this is one of them.
Works of art might look easy but there is more to it than we can see. So in the spiritual world we are dealing with the greatest Artist of all. Like the artist God must sometimes move carefully and slowly. So He does with each of our souls.
The invitation to the banquet is more than just a casual offer… Oh, if you are not doing anything else, come on over…
It is life and death. We need to come to the banquet, otherwise we will die!
We will die spiritually, and be eternally separated from God, if we do not come.
We were made by God, and we all have a yearning for Him (hunger).
We can bury the spiritual hunger under other experiences, looking for worldly distractions and fulfilment in short-term goals.
But no earthly good can remove or satisfy this deeper need for God.
This is the way we are made; we cannot change it. (Of course, we don’t need to change it.)
For us who do see this need, we still might place other things before it.
The heavenly food will do these things for me: Let this Holy Communion be to me an armour of faith and a shield of good will, a cleansing of all vices, and a rooting out of all evil desires. May it increase love and patience, humility and obedience, and all virtues. May it be a firm defence against the evil designs of all my visible and invisible enemies, a perfect quieting of all the desires of soul and body. (St Thomas Aquinas)
These are the things we should be asking for. Many do not see this. Each person has to find his own way forward, and respond to the invitation.
The bread from Heaven will work on us, and in us, filling our hunger.
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