“Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.” (Mt 5,6)

God has placed a hunger deep within us. Deep within there is an emptiness in our hearts and souls that longs to be filled. We hunger for something that is right, something that is real, something that is good, something that is true, something that is worth giving our lives to, something that will complete us. We hunger for life. We hunger for something that will give meaning and purpose to our life. We find that our hunger is not just about empty bellies but is really about empty hearts and souls. We hunger and long to be filled.

Often we try to fill the emptiness within with things that the world has to offer us. We indulge our desires and our physical appetites but although we may gorge ourselves on the pleasures of the world, nothing seems to satisfy us. We always are left wanting more. The worldly fare that is offered to us only leaves us empty. Deuteronomy advises us, “He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger, and then fed you with manna, a food unknown to you and your fathers, in order to show you that not by bread alone does one live, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the LORD.” (Deut 8,3) God allows us to hunger so that he may fill us with his own divine life and presence. Only God can fill us with life. Only God can satisfy the hunger of our hearts and souls. St. Teresa of Avila teaches us, “Nothing is wanting to him who possesses God. God alone suffices.” Only God is enough.

Isaiah the prophet poses the question to us, “Why spend your money for what is not bread; your wages for what fails to satisfy? Heed me, and you shall eat well, you shall delight in rich fare. Come to me heedfully, listen, that you may have life.” (Is 55,2f) Only in God can we eat well and be satisfied. The rich fare that God has to offer to us is unknown to the world. It is a food that is “unknown to you and your fathers.” Only God knows what we hunger for, only he can fill the emptiness in our souls. When the world is opting out of the rich food that God has to offer to us in Jesus, Jesus asks his disciples, “Do you also want to leave?” (Jn 6,67) Peter answers him, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (v. 68) The bread that gives us life is the Incarnate Word of God, Jesus, who offers himself to us as the “bread of life.” “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” (Jn 6,51) This bread is “unknown to you and your fathers” because it is not something that the world can offer, it is a bread that comes down from heaven and that gives us the eternal life that our hearts and souls long for.

The bread of life that will fill our hearts and souls can only be obtained by entrusting ourselves to God. This bread requires an act of faith. In the act of faith we “opt in” to sharing in the divine life of God and receiving Jesus – body, soul and divinity – into our hearts. Pope Benedict wrote, “Freedom is not an opting out. It is an opting in – a participation in Being itself. Hence authentic freedom can never be attained by turning away from God. Such a choice would ultimately disregard the very truth that we need in order to understand ourselves.” St. Paul affirms for us, “The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” (1Cor 10,17) The living bread and the Word of life that we receive in the Eucharist allows us to participate in the body of Christ. In receiving the Body and Blood of Christ we participate in the divine life of the Father. We receive the bread that “comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
Jesus reveals to us that “my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.” (Jn 6,56) The Body and Blood of Jesus is the food that satisfies our hunger and thirst for righteousness, truth, meaning and purpose in our lives. The gift that Jesus gives in the Eucharist is the gift of himself, a self-offering of love. He gives to us “living bread” that comes down from heaven and prepares us for eternal life. This gift is more than bread, it is life, heavenly life, eternal life, divine life. The true gift that Jesus offers to us in love is the gift of his true presence. The Eucharist is not a token or sign of love, it is the real thing! The Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Christ, is the true presence of Jesus in our lives, reminding us every moment that we are loved and that we are destined for glorious things. Only in receiving him and abiding in him do we have that “enough’ that our hearts and souls long for.