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Gospel: John 6:35-40
Jesus said to the crowds,
“I am the bread of life;
whoever comes to me will never hunger,
and whoever believes in me will never thirst.
But I told you that although you have seen me,
you do not believe.
Everything that the Father gives me will come to me,
and I will not reject anyone who comes to me,
because I came down from heaven not to do my own will
but the will of the one who sent me.
And this is the will of the one who sent me,
that I should not lose anything of what he gave me,
but that I should raise it on the last day.
For this is the will of my Father,
that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him
may have eternal life,
and I shall raise him on the last day.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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I’m sure most of us have heard Bruce Springsteen’s famous song, “Everybody’s Got a Hungry Heart.”
We can sing along because we know it’s true! Everybody’s got a hungry heart.
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But how do we try to satisfy it?
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Jesus says to us in the Gospel today, the only way to find lasting fulfillment is to come to him, because he shows us how to love.
Love alone satisfies our hungry human hearts.
It’s a strange and mysterious truth, but it’s in giving that we receive; it’s in feeding others that we ourselves are fed.
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Nobody embodies this truth better than Jesus.
From his birth until his death, he gives himself away. He satisfied his hungry heart. How happy he must’ve been.
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Like Jesus, how do we give ourselves away? How do we love other people in order to be fed?
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Everybody’s got a hungry heart.
But only those who love unconditionally like Christ can satisfy it.
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Image credits: (1) Bruce Springsteen, Everybody’s Got a Hungry Heart (2) Test Everything (3) Danielle Bernock