Blessed are You who are Poor and Hungry

The Gospel today focuses on Luke’s version of the Beatitudes. Remember, Matthew also has a slightly different version.  Matthew focuses more on the spiritual aspect of blessedness, so much so that St. John Paul II described them as a self-portrait of Christ.  Matthew directs the reader to his final goal of heaven by saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

On the other hand, St. Luke emphasizes blessedness from a more temporal perspective. He focuses on holiness in the here and now and how that blessedness manifests in everyday life. In contrast, St. Luke mentions the poor, not in spirit but just the poor who will inherit the Kingdom of God. To drive the point home, his next line is about those who are hungry, how they will be satisfied, and so on.   

St. Luke is strikingly different between the two. He includes admonishing those who are rich, those who are not hungry, those who laugh, and those who have received adulations in this life. To those, he warns them they have already received their reward in life, a condition far inferior to the promised inheritance of the Kingdom of Heaven.

St. Luke’s warning is as applicable then as it is now.  Human nature has been consistent throughout the ages. When a person has eaten, he doesn’t rush to the dinner table, even if what is on the table is filled with delectable food and choice wines.  How often do we settle for fast food when we can have nutritious and good food? We all have done it; the metaphor can apply to our spiritual lives.

No one wants to be poor or hungry. We work very hard each day to stave off those situations from a physical point of view. Human nature demands that hunger and poverty be eradicated. That is why most of our time is directed to alleviating those conditions. Once our physical needs are addressed, spiritual poorness and hunger linger, by which all other energies are directed.

As Christians, Christ should be the center of our lives. But that often doesn’t happen. Our spouses, kids, and jobs frequently take the top spot. But we fail to realize that those creatures or positions we hold can never feed our spiritual hunger; only God can satisfy that want.  We are not just physical beings; we have a spiritual component: our eternal soul. The spiritual need to be fed, but often, we fill it with temporal food, which fools us into thinking we are not hungry or poor in spirit.

Although we all tend to fill our spiritual wants with junk, this is especially evident among those who do not have a faith life at all. These poor souls are never filled and satisfied. Sadly, they are running on a squirrel wheel, round and round they go. The temporal goods fill them briefly, but the effects quickly end. This often manifests itself as a constant need to engage in pleasurable activities. They can never get enough.

Those Christians who realize the constant search to fill their spiritual hunger or poverty doesn’t reside in the world have already begun living the Beatitudes. By being poor and hungry, the spiritual life seeks, and the search is satisfied by a greater union with Christ. Then, we achieve a peace that keeps us from searching in all the wrong places.

Far from being a lack, our poverty and hunger can be a blessing. By reminding us that the world can never totally satisfy our needs, we turn to the one who can and will never abandon us. Being poor and hungry, we meet Christ in a whole new way.