HUNGER FOR LIFE.

EIGHTEEN SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME. YEAR B.
August 2, 2009.
(1st. Reading Exodus 16:2-4, 12-25) (2nd. Reading Ephesians 4:17-24)
(Gospel John 6:24-35)


HUNGER FOR LIFE.

A person hungers for what he needs; if what he needs is to live, then he will hunger for life and his food must be in accordance with the satisfaction of that need.

In the gospel today, Jesus describes himself as "The Bread of Life", the food that can give life.

Jesus invites us to be hungry for life.
To be hungry for life means to care for life, to respect life, to share it with one another in equality and justice because that is how life grows. We grow in life when we use it for the benefit of all human beings.

Saint Paul in his Letter to the Ephesians says that when we eat the bread of life, we transform our "old self" into our "new self": Christ whom we eat.

The "old self" hungers for "futility and emptiness of mind, darkened understanding, separation from God because of ignorance and resistance, abandonment to every sort of lewd conduct,... and deceitful intents" (Ephesians 4:18-19). The "old self" intentionally feeds himself with the lies that keep him from seeing the truth.

The "new self" hungers for "justice and holiness that are born of truth" (Ephesians 4:24). To the "new self" truth is the conformity of his life with the life of Jesus.

The world is not hungry for life because it is concerned only with self-serving interests at the expense of the lives of other human beings. For the world, life is worthless or, at best, nothing more than a mere economic commodity whose labor power can be sold or bought for miserable wages.

The Church, as the Body of Christ, must awaken the hunger for life in all human beings, especially in those who remain in the "old self". If we fail to awaken the hunger for life in the world, then our world will die of hunger.