Forms of hunger and forms of feeding - Homily

National Catholic Reporter, June 6, 1997 by Michele M. Chollet

Today the first reading from 2 Kings (4:42-44) about Elisha's miraculous feeding of 100 men foreshadows Jesus' feeding of the 5,000 people in the gospel John 6:1-15). Both point to the Eucharist that Jesus established.

It is not accidental that so many stories in both testaments use food, eating or hunger images to make a theological point. Could the scripture writers mean or us to understand that God is as essential as food for our existence?

Food is one of our most basic needs, as teas c as water and breath, both also frequent biblical images. We might also agree that all human beings need shelter, clothing, health care, work and personal safety and security.

However, we Americans are uncomfortable with need of any kind. We prize independence and believe that anyone who works hard will not be poor or needy. Probably few of us in this community lack food or shelter. I would like to suggest that these readings invite us to reflect on hungers deeper than those related to our physical survival.

God may not be the first need to come to mind, since our culture gives us zillions of messages telling us to fill needs we didn't know we had -- a more expensive car or home, a particular brand of clothing, a certain income, personal computers, modems, fax machines, cellular phones Few, if any, modern conveniences are bad in themselves. They do remark able things for us. Yet I think our comforts not only distract us from attending to needs having nothing to do with what we can buy. but also distance us from an awareness of God's presence in our lives and in the world.

A few years ago, a Maryknoll priest, John Waish, gave a retreat here. He said our deepest needs were to love, to be loved, and, as he put it, to blossom outward. I think he's right. Are we not hungry to be known and loved? Are we not hungry to form relationships in which we can love others? Do we not want our work to have meaning as well as to produce a paycheck?

Perhaps the message of these feeding stories goes deeper than the relief of physical hunger. The 5,000 who followed Jesus up the mountain did not go thinking chiefly of their next meal. The gospel says they went because they saw the signs he was performing for the sick. Yet not all 5,000 needed a physical healing or wanted to gawk at those who did. Don't you think they went because Jesus made them feel loved?

Unlike the poor and sick, we do not really feel we need God to feed, clothe, shelter, heal or support us. Therefore, we must find ways to recognize and feel comfortable with the idea of needing God. For us who have so much, it often takes a serious problem or a tragedy to bring us to acknowledge this need.

Yet I don't think God seriously wishes that all of us would become destitute and sick just so we can come to value our divine relationship, although, at times in our lives, ail of us will approach God out of desperate, frightened need. In between these times, perhaps we could try cultivating a healthier relationship with God out of gratitude.

My husband and I sometimes bemoan our children's seeming lack of gratitude or even awareness of all the love and material advantages they have. But aren't we all a bit guilty of that?

Even more basically, which of us did anything to cause ourselves to be born in a First World country with at least an even chance at a good life?

Which of us endowed ourselves with our particular intelligence and character, enabling us to succeed in the world?

Which of us controls any force of nature that allows us to grow food, breathe and live comfortably? Much of what we take for granted and depend upon is simply a gift we did not earn.

This gospel tells us that not only did the 5,000 have enough to eat, but that there was much left over. God is not a minimalist! This is good news.

God intends, I think, for each of us to be filled to overflowing with what we really need most, love and a sense of purpose, so much so that we cannot help but share it with each other.

Michele M. Chollet is a nurse, a graduate student and a member of a small Christian community who occasionally presents the Sunday reflection at St. Peter's Church, Kansas City, Mo. She responded to NCR's request for homilies.