The Pilgrim's Rule
Chapter 2
Hunger and Thirst
What the Body Teaches the Soul
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill.
Among all the voices by which the Creator instructs man, few speak more frequently than hunger. From the hour of his birth until the day of his death, man is reminded that he does not possess life within himself. The infant cries for nourishment before he can speak. The laborer lays aside his tools when his strength begins to fail. The aged feel their weakness more keenly when food is withheld. Hunger accompanies every stage of life, teaching the same lesson to every generation: man is a creature who must continually receive.
This dependence is no defect in God's design. It is one of His greatest lessons.
The Lord could have created man needing food but once, or sustaining his strength without nourishment for many years. Instead, He ordained that every day, and often several times each day, we should remember that life is preserved not by our own power but by His Providence. Every meal is therefore an act of dependence, whether man acknowledges it or not.
Yet the hunger of the body is only the shadow of a deeper hunger.
God fashioned the stomach to long for bread because He first fashioned the soul to long for Himself.
Long before the body cries for food, the soul was created with a desire that no earthly banquet can satisfy. Riches cannot satisfy it. Honors cannot satisfy it. Knowledge alone cannot satisfy it. Even the purest earthly friendships cannot entirely satisfy it. There remains within every human heart a longing that reaches beyond this passing world toward its Creator.
The world often mistakes this longing.
Many seek to quiet the hunger of the soul by feeding the appetites of the body. They pursue one pleasure after another, imagining that a fuller table, greater comfort, wider possessions, or continual amusement will finally bring peace. Yet each satisfaction quickly fades, and the soul remains restless because it has been offered what it was never created to consume.
The body may be filled while the soul is starving.
How many men carefully nourish their bodies while allowing the interior life to languish. They concern themselves with wholesome food, clean water, proper exercise, and sufficient rest. These are good and reasonable cares, for the body is a gift entrusted to us by God. Yet with equal diligence they ought to ask another question: "What has my soul been fed today?"
As spoiled food weakens the body, so falsehood weakens the soul.
As poison destroys physical life, so destroys the supernatural life of .
As nourishing food strengthens the body little by little, so truth, prayer, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the , and the practice of strengthen the soul quietly but surely. The transformation is seldom sudden. It is accomplished meal by meal, day by day, until strength is formed by faithful nourishment.
Our Divine Lord frequently taught by means of bread because bread belongs to every man. He multiplied loaves in the wilderness. He called Himself the Bread of Life. He taught us to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread." Thus, what sustains the body becomes the image of Him Who alone can sustain the soul unto everlasting life.
The Christian pilgrim therefore learns to receive even his daily meals with gratitude and . Before taking bread into his hands, he remembers that every earthly loaf points beyond itself to a greater nourishment. As the body cannot live without food, neither can the soul live apart from the of God. One meal sustains us for a few hours; the Bread of Heaven strengthens the faithful for eternity.
There is another lesson hidden within hunger.
Appetite is not always a trustworthy guide.
A sick man may crave what will increase his illness and reject the very food that would his health. The physician therefore does not ask only what the desires; he prescribes what the needs.
The spiritual life follows the same law.
The fallen soul often desires what weakens it and resists what would heal it. It may crave praise more than , ease more than sacrifice, novelty more than truth, amusement more than . If appetite alone governed the spiritual life, man would soon wander far from God. Therefore, the Christian learns to submit his desires to reason enlightened by faith, just as a wise submits his appetite to the judgment of a skilled physician.
This is one reason why Holy has always esteemed fasting. Fasting is not a rejection of God's gifts but a right ordering of them. By voluntarily denying lawful pleasures for a time, the body remembers that it is not the master but the servant. Hunger becomes a quiet instructor, teaching the soul that every earthly desire must ultimately be governed by the love of God.
The saints understood this mystery well. They did not fast because food was evil. They fasted because they desired something better. They willingly endured a passing hunger that they might preserve within themselves a greater hunger for , holiness, and the vision of God.
The Christian pilgrim should therefore welcome hunger's lesson without complaint. Whenever the body reminds him of its need, let him remember the greater need of the soul. Whenever he gives thanks for earthly bread, let him also ask for the to hunger more earnestly after righteousness. Whenever he experiences the emptiness that comes from fasting, let him recall that every created good leaves room for the uncreated Good alone.
Thus the simplest meal becomes an act of worship.
The empty cup teaches desire.
The loaf upon the table teaches Providence.
The satisfied appetite teaches gratitude.
And the hunger that returns tomorrow reminds the pilgrim that while the body must be fed again and again, the soul shall one day be perfectly satisfied only when it beholds God face to face.
For Meditation
Every hunger permitted by God is an invitation to remember another hunger. As readily as the body seeks its daily bread, let the soul seek the Bread that came down from Heaven. Ask yourself each day not only whether you have fed your body, but whether you have nourished your soul with truth, prayer, and the of God.
Rule for the Pilgrim
As carefully as you choose the food that enters your body, choose with even greater care the thoughts, words, and desires that enter your soul. For spoiled bread weakens the body for a time, but poisoned truth can wound the soul for eternity.