HUNGER AND THIRST! 

THE REALITY AND 

THE METAPHOR 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Tuesday in the Third Week of Easter is, “Hunger and Thirst! The Reality and the Metaphor.”

The last sentence in today’s gospel is, "Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.'” [John 6:35]

THE REALITY

We all know the reality of hunger and thirst.

How many times have we said, “I’m starving!”? How many times have we said, “I’m thirsty!?”  Or "I’m famished!"

I remember when I used to backpack in New Hampshire as well as Colorado. After hiking all day, we'd be starving that night. Colorado was the toughest - because for 12 days we’d only have freeze dry food - the food we were carrying in our backpacks. So on the way back - once we got to our car - we’d head for Burger King or any food place - way before even a shower.

When was the last time we said, "I'm hungry" or "I'm thirsty?"

Would the greatest torture be to starve people?

We all know the Greek Myth of Tantalus . He had to suffer the eternal punishment of standing in a pool of water - and every time he wants water - it recedes. And above his head is a low lying branch with delicious fruit on it - and every time he reaches for some fruit to eat - the branches would go higher. Bummer. From Tantalus we get the word, “tantalize”.

Life is tantalizing - we hunger and thirst - and sometimes we discover nothing ever really satisfies us.

The story of Tantalus moves us to the metaphor of being hungry or thirsty.

SPORTS

In watching the Orioles this year, I hear Jim Palmer, Mike Bordick, Gary Thorn, Rick Dempsey, and Tom Davis saying, “The Orioles didn’t win it all last year, but they got a taste of victory. That should make them do better this year. They should be hungrier.”

There’s that metaphor: hunger and thirst.

If a team loses year after year after year, players give up sooner. They lose the desire, the dream, they had as little kids to make it to the top. If a player on the bench gets a chance to play - because someone is injured - and if they are hungry - there’s the opening - to show what one has.

If you remember the movie, The Natural, Roy Hobbs tells Iris, his childhood dream that was cut short, “I wanted to be the best. I wanted to walk down the street and kids would see me and they’d say, ‘There goes Roy Hobbs, the best there ever was.’”

Now that’s hunger. That’s thirst.

MAKE A LIST OF THE BASIC HUNGERS AND THIRSTS

Make a list - of the human hungers - the human thirsts.

I preached a whole sermon on this just two Sundays a go - on this very theme - but I used the word “intent”. What’s my intent in life?

It’s one’s desire. It’s one’s passion. It’s one’s hope. It’s one hunger and thirst.

It takes a lot of living. It takes a lot of ups and downs. It takes a lot of failures. It takes a lot of successes - in life - to discover oneself - to figure out that the hunger and the thirst for food, for money, for fame, for name, help or seem to help at times, but down deep they never really satisfy the deepest desires and fires, hungers and thirsts - of the human heart.

I heard in several AA retreats - which I used to give - an alcoholic saying, “I was looking for God at the bottom of a bottle - and God was never there. And it took a lot of bottles and a lot of drinks to discover that.”

It takes a lot of experimenting - and emptying - to discover that our deepest hungers and thirsts - are only satisfied with persons - not things - not stuff - even if we get stuffed with plenty of stuff. It’s always persons.

The deepest happiness is always family - friends - spouse - children, grandchildren - and hopefully parents - especially when we can sit down with each other as adults - and share what our mom and dad what they learned, what happened to them - what they were about - back then - and we didn’t grasp it till now - and then in our turn to do that with our children - and then as grandparents - to complete the circles of life.

Down deep we’re all like kids with a box of broken crayons figuring it all out. With sit there with our paper on the floor or on the kitchen table - figuring.

The two key areas - circles of life - that Greg Pierce - a writer in Chicago - said are:  relationships and work.  That’s where we spend the time of our lives with.  Work can be great - but in a way it stinks if we can’t share what we’re doing with each other.

Relationships then gives us glimpses of God. Relationships can bring us to God.

Then the day dawns on us that God has to be relationships.

Relationships are all about hungers and thirsts.

Relationships give us glimpses with what Christianity came up with - God is Trinity - a Trinity of Persons. Who else could God be?

Christianity proclaims that God is a 3 way relationship - and then a 4 way relationship.

Three - God in God.  Four - God with us.

Three - so united - they are one. And we two’s, threes, fours, family, community, team, friendships, groups, when we are one - it’s then we can catch God - eat God - be in communion with God - and taste God at his table.

CONCLUSION

So it’s no wonder Jesus becomes food - because that’s a glimpse of our hunger and thirst for people - for relationships- to be all one in communion. Isn’t that why we’re here right here, right now? We’re here to sip and bite into God - who satisfies our hungers and our thirsts. Amen.