Hunger: What are you taking in? - What do you choose to eat?

 

FOCUS SCRIPTURE

John 6:53-58

DAILY BYTE

What have you eaten so far today? Was it satisfying? Think for a few minutes about your favorite foods. I would say pasta, real dairy chocolate ice cream, fresh vegetables and fruit (except for radishes and red apples), a really good, juicy hamburger, maybe throw in some fresh, salty chips. In other words, foods that for me bring comfort, health, memories of past good mealtimes, and fulfillment of a sweet tooth craving now and then. Foods that satisfy a physical hunger and also bring joy!

However, I often don’t eat my favorite foods. Often, in fact, I eat very little that is truly satisfying and very little that fills the deepest needs of my body for nourishment. I usually eat what is convenient... Am I alone in this? But our relationship with God is usually not - convenient, and it turns out that the scriptures and the tradition of the church create a vital link between our physical eating habits and our spiritual nourishment.

The Lenten journey, especially, calls us to reevaluate our relationship with food through the practice of fasting. If you have not yet considered Lenten fasting, pray today about whether, or not, you might stop participating in a particular activity (eg. watching TV or playing video games) or stop eating a particular food, if you are physically able. Fasting is clearly not just about eliminating certain foods from your diet. But there is a reason why fasting from food is emphasized. There is no question that our physical hunger reminds us of a deeper hunger.

In her book, Mudhouse Sabbath: An Invitation to a Life of Spiritual Discipline, Lauren Winner quotes a Rabbi mentor who once said, “When you are fasting...and you feel hungry, you are to remember that you are really hungry for God.” But we can choose if we want to receive that nourishment from God, or not. So, if you have chosen to set aside the tub of ice cream in the freezer for Lent and someone stands in front of you happily eating a chocolate ice cream cone, your mind might want to say - give me one, too! I wish I hadn’t given that up for Lent! But you can choose in that moment for your heart to say, thank you for reminding me I have chosen you and you have chosen me. I need you, God, and I trust you to provide.

When we experience the pangs of hunger, we also cannot help but become more mindful of those who do not choose hunger but have it forced upon them. And it is at the communion table that every kind of person, no matter how hungry or how satisfied physically and spiritually, meets together. God knew before the joke was ever made that the way to a person’s heart is through their stomach. When periods in my life have prevented me from receiving Holy Communion for weeks on end, I experience a physical craving. It is a craving that suggests that I am not just hungry for juice and bread, but I am hungry for community. I am hungry for connection. I am hungry for an opportunity to praise the “Lord God, King of the universe through our Lord Jesus Christ,” as it says in the liturgy, and to accept once again from God the sustaining, fulfilling gift of God’s presence within me. What do you choose to eat? Do you allow your food at mealtimes and at the altar to draw you more deeply into the fulfilling presence of Christ?

Questions for reflection:

1. Are you hungry? What are you hungry for? What are you currently chewing on in life? Does it satisfy?
2. What is your relationship with food? Do you see it as a gift, as a complexity, as a curse, etc.? How might God be calling you deeper into relationship through food?
3. What is your relationship with God through Holy Communion? Do you feel excluded from the table because of something you have done or not done?
4. Do you crave communion with God and with the community? How does eating the body and blood of Christ during Holy Communion alter your understanding of how you are called to be part of the body of Christ in the world?

PRAYER

Pray today the Prayer of Humble Access - the prayer, which traditionally is prayed immediately before members of the church share the bread and wine: Lord, we come to your table trusting in your mercy and not in any goodness of our own. We are not worthy even to gather up the crumbs under your table, but it is your nature always to have mercy, and on that we depend. So feed us with the body and blood of Jesus Christ, your Son, that we may for ever live in him and he in us. Amen.