It is a safe bet that we all know what hunger feels like. Yesterday, for instance, I had an appointment to go for a blood draw at the DuPage Medical Center down the street. It was one of those “fasting” blood draws. In other words, I was not supposed to eat anything before they took the sample. When I got home, I was immediately drawn into something else that needed to be done. So around 10:30, I was feeling a little bit hungry.
So when I read the opening prayer for today’s Mass, I was struck by the fact that we were asking God to help us grow in our desire for God. Desire and hunger are basically the same things. While a bowl of cereal or a graham cracker or two could fill my desire for food, what would help my desire for God to grow?
Actually, there is very little that will satisfy this hunger. In fact, spiritual writers claim that the desire itself is the answer to the prayer. This is one of the reasons that fasting from food is considered a Lenten discipline. The spiritual writers have said that experiencing physical hunger helps us to grow in our desire for God.
The prophet Isaiah today provides us with a glorious description of what can happen to us when God’s word becomes our daily nourishment. He compares the word of God to the rain and snow that refresh the land, make it fertile, and give life to the seeds planted there. In the same way God’s Word refreshes our hearts and fertilizes the seeds of desire for God in our souls. God becomes very specific about the efficacy of that Word, “It will not return to me void, but shall do my will.”
God’s Word then, the Sacred Scriptures, are the nourishment we must seek in order to find the answer to our prayer today. Only through that Word of God will our desire for God grow and flourish.
Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M. Administrator