“Human happiness: Buy Now With One Click.” … If only.

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Gospel: John 6:24-35

When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there,
they themselves got into boats
and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus. 
And when they found him across the sea they said to him,
“Rabbi, when did you get here?” 
Jesus answered them and said,
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
you are looking for me not because you saw signs
but because you ate the loaves and were filled. 
Do not work for food that perishes
but for the food that endures for eternal life,
which the Son of Man will give you. 
For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.” 
So they said to him,
“What can we do to accomplish the works of God?” 
Jesus answered and said to them,
“This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.” 
So they said to him,
“What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you? 
What can you do? 
Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written:
    He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”
So Jesus said to them,
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven;
my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 
For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven
and gives life to the world.”

So they said to him,
“Sir, give us this bread always.” 
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.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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I lived in Rome for five years while studying for the priesthood. For three of those years, I served in one of the local prisons, offering a weekly bible study.

Over time, the guards became comfortable with me, allowing me to bring things like clothing in for some of the prisoners, who had nothing more than the clothes on their back.

One of them was a man from central Africa. He was a towering figure with a bald head and a lazy left eye. Once he asked me to bring him a beanie to cover his head because he got cold at night.

So, the following week, I found him out in the rec yard. The guards seemed to be away on a smoke break, so I went up to him alone and gave him his cap.

Eventually, the guards noticed me, so they grabbed me, ranting and raving, threatening to throw me out. “They could hurt you!” they said.

I just looked at the guards and replied, “How can you believe in God with a cold head?”

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It’s hard to believe in a God who cares for you in the afterlife if you cannot see Him or his followers caring for you in the present age.

It’s why Jesus feeds the hungry crowd with the multiplication of the loaves in last week’s Gospel. People need their basic needs met before they can consider bigger, more existential questions like, “Is there a God?”

Having fed them, Jesus now presses the crowd in this week’s Gospel to see their hunger beneath the hunger; we all need more than just food in order to be satisfied.

As Bruce Springsteen famously sang, “Everybody’s Got a Hungry Heart.”

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Jesus promises he can satisfy it.

“Whoever comes to me will never hunger,” he says, “and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

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That’s a bold claim.

It can be particularly challenging for societies like ours to accept, when we have so much readily available at our finger tips. We can Amazon almost anything. If only we could put “happiness” in our cart!

Imagine that: “human happiness.” Buy now with one click.

It’s just not that easy. While we can easily fill our stomachs and shopping carts, it’s much harder to satisfy a hungry heart.

Think about the many ways people try satisfying themselves: iPhones; the internet; social media; shopping sprees; relationships; perpetual work; sports; and so on.

It’s never enough.

Another “like” on Facebook, another follower on Instagram, another trophy, or another addition to our wardrobe still leaves us wanting more.

Perhaps we feel that hunger most when we’re alone; or ill in bed; or during the holidays; or when the work-day is done and we’re sitting on the couch with our iPhone watching Netflix. 

There’s something inside of us that work and social media can’t satisfy. It’s a God-shaped hole, which is why Jesus says, “whoever comes to me will never hunger and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

This is what satisfies a hungry heart: communion with God.

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I’ve certainly found that to be true in my own life.

For example, I remember feeling terribly restless in college. While everything was going great on the surface, I was restless within.

Have you ever felt that way, as if you have everything you need, yet you’re still not satisfied?

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Late one evening, just before midnight, I remember walking over to the chapel on campus, hoping it’d be open so I could pray. Of course, it was closed. 

So, I leaned my head against the chapel door and said: “Lord, I believe that only you can satisfy me. Nothing else has worked. Where do we go from here?”

That question not only led me to converting to Catholicism; it also led me to the priesthood, and eventually here to St. Pius X.

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“Whoever comes to me will never hunger,” Jesus says, “and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

This does not mean that we can pray to God one night and be satisfied forever; we have to return to the Lord consistently. But once we find him – or once He finds us – we don’t need to go anywhere else.

I dream of St. Pius X being a place where people easily encounter God.

A place where young people satisfy their hungry hearts through youth group; children and adults sing their hearts out in choir; and all of us participate in communal prayer, worship, and bible studies.

That transformation has already begun. But the Lord’s inviting all of us to participate.

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Everybody’s got a hungry heart.

And we who seek the Lord can satisfy it.

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Image credits (1) Everybody has a hungry heart, by Gina Dsgn (2) Steve Dusek (3) AZ Quotes (4) Hungry Heart Pin, Etsy