Hunger for Him

Hunger for Him

Adapted from a sermon by Fr Daniel Fanous


In this gospel, the church chooses for us a passage where Christ says, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.” John 6: 35

Then as it continues in the Gospel, we hear that Christ says to them that “My life is in you.”

If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”  John 6: 51

I’ve always found it fascinating that this gospel is read on the second Sunday of the Holy 50 days of resurrection.After Easter, after the feast of the resurrection, we celebrate 50 days of joy. In these 50 days of joy, the Church selects for us Gospels that generally revolve around the theme of ‘Christ like life’, where He says, “I am the door, I am the bread of life, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life, I am the light of the world.”

I’ve always found it fascinating that in this particular Gospel, “I am the bread of life,” is the second Gospel. It’s as though the church is reminding us of two things.

Christ gave Himself for the life of the world. We should never forget, never dissociate. Never take that dimension away from the resurrection. Secondly, although He was crucified and resurrected, He is always with us through His body in His blood on the Altar. Although He has, in a sense, left this world, He’s never left this world even unto the end of the ages. He’s with us in His present through His body and blood on the Altar.

So these two things that Christ gave Himself for the life of the world, and that yet He remains with us through His Body and Blood, I think these are the reasons why the Church selects this Gospel, that He is the bread of life, that whoever feeds on, whoever has His life in will be transformed by the life.

St. Ignatius of Antioch was the bishop of Antioch, they led him in a procession before they killed him. on his way to be martyred, in the second century, wrote to the church in Rome.

He wrote to the Romans and said this:

“Do not talk about Jesus Christ while you desire the world. Do not let envy dwell among you. I take no pleasure in corruptible food or the pleasures of this life. I want the bread of God which is the flesh of Christ, who is at the seat of David. And for drink, I want His blood, which is incorruptible love.”

The early church knew deeply that they shared in the life of Christ, that He was in them. This happened and ultimately, when they partook in the Eucharist, when they shared His Body and Blood. In the Eucharist, they no longer had a physical hunger that was to be satisfied, but rather, Christ’s life was in them, transforming them.

St Cyril of Alexandria commenting on this passage in John 6 says:  “in effect, Jesus is saying, I am the bread of life, not bodily bread, which merely eliminates the physical suffering brought on by hunger, but rather that bread that refashions the entire living being to eternal life. The human being who had been created for eternal life is now given power over death. The Eucharist, the presence of Christ in the body in blood on the altar, is not there to satisfy our physical hunger. It’s there to refashion us, to transform us, to remake us, so that we would be worthy of eternal life. So that we could be a dwelling place for Christ.”

The early church held on to this belief with a radical understanding that they couldn’t live without the body and the blood of Christ, that He was present among them in His body in His blood. Yet, if you observe even in St John’s Gospel, not all who heard Christ’s words hunger for that bread. Not all who heard that word hungered for Him. In fact, if you observe it says, even many of his disciples were disturbed, by what He was saying. How could somebody eat His flesh and drink his blood? How could His life be communicated in His flesh in his blood? Some were so disturbed that Christ even said to them, this is a hard thing who can understand it. He looked at His own disciples, as many people started to leave Him and said to them, “Do you also want to go away?”

Even His own disciples didn’t hunger. Some of his disciples did not hunger for Christ. St. Augustine says, “they were far from being fit for that heavenly bread, and they didn’t know how to hunger for it.” For this bread requires the hunger of the inner person. They didn’t hunger for him. They didn’t hunger for His presence.

This is what all of us, especially now, during this current crisis, need to have very firmly in our hearts. Do we hunger for the presence of Christ? Everyone across this Earth now is to a certain extent separated from the Altar. Separated from the Eucharist. Yet the Eucharist, the presence of Christ, His Body and Blood, needs now to be yearned for more than anything else. We need to hunger for it. It’s not a ritual. It’s not a remembrance. It’s where we stand face-to-face to Christ in His presence. Even though me may now only be able to commune infrequently, let this yearning, this hungering that is growing within us become a joyful experience of yearning for Christ.

It is not something we should be sad about. It is something we should be joyful about, because we know we will eventually be reunited. Let our desires of our heart grow, knowing that He never leaves us, but that we need to learn to hunger for Him.

Those who Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness

The Beatitudes Series Part 4

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness’ sake for they shall be filled

By Demiana Salib


“Why are you cast down my soul? And why are you disquieted within me?” (Ps 43:5) – Because, in my deepest distress, I feel like I’m not getting it right. I don’t know what right is. If I make a decision tomorrow, or next week, or next month, I know that I will be wiser even in those short periods of time, but I need to live in the present. And today, I don’t know if this is the right thing to do. 

What is the obsession with being right? Right and wrong is all relative to my own personal understanding. In Judges, everyone did what was right in their own eyes and life was chaos, to say the least. So, I can strive to get it right yet still be very wrong.

But God has fulfilled His promise to be there for me always, even when I get it wrong. I can get it wrong 7 times, I can get it wrong 70×7 times which is more maths than I can handle and He will still take me back (Matt. 18:22). So why do I need to be right?

I can be “right,” yet still filled with the same shame and despair. Fr Antony Paul once called the Pharisees the “super righteous, but lacking in heart.” These were the only ones that Christ rebuked – not those that came in sin – because they were righteous in their own eyes (1). Do I want to be right all the time or do I want to be righteous in the eyes of my Father? 

“A person may exhaust most of his income in pursuing such [worldly] activities. However, if a servant so much as looks at such things as the main source of mental diversion and spiritual comfort, they will instead trigger acute psychological anxiety. They will waste his time, deplete his health, dwindle his money, spoil his taste for prayer and spiritual activities, and weaken his resolve for repentance.”

Fr Matta El Meskeen

If I strive to be righteous for the sake of being right, I’m only going to pull myself further away from God. I can be achieving what I intended, but there will be a stark reality check when I see how far I have removed myself from Christ. A life of getting it right is a life of anxiety, but it is what we, as humans, have come to know and expect. To hunger and thirst for righteousness in the eyes of the Father is the spiritual height of blessing. To hunger and thirst as if my very existence depended on it.

It is no longer about getting it right but, God, I just want to know You more and more each day. I’m not going to get it right, but for as long as I am spending my days with You, then I know I’m going far. I have tasted the sweetness of Your grace and now, nothing else will satisfy. When I was searching for You at first, I couldn’t see You clearly but as I move closer and closer, You come into focus and my anxieties fade. My decisions become easier, I’m not striving to get it right but to get to know You and all else is secondary.

When I am stuck in my own selfish desires, I want to get it right on my own. But when I look to God, I empty my selfish desires before His Throne and He gives me His grace in return. My repentance is no longer, “God I messed up,” and stops there but, “God, the infinite and eternal, Creator of heaven and earth, I am in awe of You and Your love for humanity, have mercy upon me, a sinner.”

Isaiah teaches us,

“Why do you spend money for what is not bread,
And your wages for what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,
And let your soul delight itself in abundance.”
– Isaiah 55:2

It was as if Isaiah knew how we would react to the coronavirus pandemic. The immediate reaction was to start hoarding as many imperishable goods as possible. But why do we spend money on what is not bread? As in, why are we so fixated on more than our daily needs? It is good to plan but in remembrance of, “give us this day our daily bread,” sustain us for today and I know tomorrow is in Your Hands. Then I know my soul will delight in abundance.

It is in the hunger and thirst for righteousness’ sake that God will work all things for good for those that love Him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). God will make good of even my biggest mistakes if I live to serve Him. I am satisfied in knowing He is in control, and in His control, my darkest of days with Him are still brighter than my brightest days without Him, for the Lord will perfect that which concerns me (Ps 138:8).

The confusion is all cured by one simple prayer: God, if it does not bring me closer to You, then I don’t want it. Although I may not know right from wrong in this lifetime, I will hunger and thirst for righteousness’ sake, not so that I get the answers right, but so I am filled with You, and that I may dwell in the house of the Lord forevermore (Ps 23:6)


(1) full sermon on praying with intent by Fr Antony Paul –  https://subspla.sh/2hwp6rx