Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be satisfied. (Matthew 5:6)
Many today think feeling hunger is always negative. We want to constantly indulge our every desire, and yet the Lord calls those blessed who experience hunger and who thirst for righteousness. We hunger and thirst for something we don’t have. Our culture often says numb the pain. Stop the hunger. We then endeavor to avoid the pain of hunger through overindulging in food, drink, shopping, or drugs, which only cause other pains. Many addicts admit their overindulgence was an attempt to avoid feeling the pain of emotional hunger.
If we never hunger and thirst for righteousness, something is wrong. Hunger helps us identify what our true needs are. That is part of the purpose of fasting, to help us listen to our hunger.
O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. (Psalm 63:1)
We are to seek first God’s kingdom – we are to hunger for it. We increase our hunger for righteousness through prayer, charity, self-control, self-denial, repentance of our own sins. When the priest declares, “Blessed is the Kingdom of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…” at the beginning of each Liturgy, the parish gives voice to its hungering for that Kingdom.
Alistaire Cooke many years ago said on PBS that the downfall of many great nations has been that they move away from working for what is universally good and instead work only for what is good for that nation. His words are challenging in an age when some think that go-at-it-alone nationalism is the way to greatness. As Christians, we are to hunger and thirst for what is universally good, righteousness for all.
Fraternized 