What are you hungry for?

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B
Homily given at St. Patrick's in Wareham
By: Fr. Ron Floyd, P.V.

What are you hungry for? I think it is important question to ask every now and then.

What is our goal and purpose in life? Where do we find our motivation and happiness? Where are we going and how do we get there?

When we forget to stop and ask these types of questions we end up attaining short term goals, but forgetting our long term goals. Forgetting our destination and trading in the pursuit of happiness
for the every day routine of life, mere contentment.

We end up going in circles, or as Jesus says in the Gospel today, working for the food that perishes
rather than the food that satisfies us forever.

Have you ever felt like you are spinning your wheels in life caught up in the mundane affairs of everyday life, never getting closer to your hopes and dreams?

Many of us forget to ask these questions and so like the Israelites we end up eating bread and quail
each day, rather than accomplishing what we really want.

So I will ask you again: what are you hungry for?

Its not a simple question, it is the question of the meaning of life and purpose of your life in particular!
Some years ago I taught conversational English to a group of 7th and 8th graders in Europe, asking them this very same question in different words. I asked them, “what is happiness?' which is essentially the same question since we all hunger for happiness, even if we don't know what it is! Their answers were probably quite similar to what we might answer off the cuff: money, fame, toys, relationships, etc. Over the four weeks that I was teaching these kids we talked about and by process of elimination
crossed off these answers one by one until at last we were left with just one answer.

True happiness—comes from loving! Because while food, money, fame, things, and even relationships
might give us pleasure, adding flavor to the main course of happiness, who would give up the steak for the seasoning salt?

And note: I said Loving, not being loved, because while it is good to be loved, and we always are loved by our God and Creator the reason for human if is God's Love for us but the purpose of human life is our love for others, most particularly God!

Happiness, unlike pleasure, is long-lasting and is not contingent on things outside ourselves, but is a personal attitude toward the gift of our life.

We are happy when we receive the world around us as what it is a totally undeserved gift of God
and in receiving this gift, we are thankful for it. True happiness comes out of a spirit of thanksgiving, which prompts us to love our creator, and also our neighbors. And true happiness is perfected when we see God face to face together with our brothers and sisters,
and are able to give Him thanks and praise!

In the first reading today the Israelites forgot this! They forgot that they were really hungry for God.
They forgot that Moses' original request of Pharaoh was not liberty from slavery in Egypt but permission to go and worship God freely.

They grumble to Moses because their stomachs are empty forgetting that they came into the desert to be with their God to share fellowship with their creator not to make love to their crock-pots.

Jesus warns us about this temptation in the Gospel, accusing the crowds of only following Him
because they were looking for a free lunch. Jesus didn't come to feed the poor or heal the sick, rather he makes these miracles an occasion to remind people of His real mission, to feed people with the presence of the living-God, for which they truly hungered.

Jesus gives the crowds earthly food, to prepare them to receive the heavenly food the bread of angels, and cup of salvation which he would win for them on the Cross. Jesus feeds us His own Body and Blood to remind man that he is truly hungry for LIFE, life with God!

What are you hungry for?

If you don't believe me that we all hunger for God you need only to search your heart
for your purpose in life to prove I am right!

As we prepare the gifts today, offering over to God bread and wine, the simple symbols of our entire human life I encourage you to ask yourself this question: What am I hungry for?

If you are prepared to receive Him today, in the Eucharist Jesus will dwell with you and give you the opportunity to be with your God and to love Him.