Deacon Mike Meyer / Sunday, August 4, 2024 / Categories: Blog, Homilies Feeding the Spirit Homily for the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B In December 2022, Céline Dion announced that she was suffering from Stiff-Person Syndrome. This rare neurological disease affected every aspect of her life, making it difficult for her to walk and even sing. She hadn’t performed since until two Fridays ago, when the Queen of Power Ballads belted a classic French love song from the balcony of the Eiffel Tower as the final act of the 2024 Olympic Opening Ceremonies. She looked great and sounded even better. Céline Dion’s “undaunted, beatific return,” as one reviewer called it, reminds us of the power of the human spirit over the physical challenges we face in this life. Our readings remind us of its source. Today’s readings focus on an aspect of human nature that’s essential to understanding our belief in Jesus’ real presence in the Eucharist—the spiritual dimension of human existence. In our first reading, the Israelites are hungry, and they’re not happy about it. God hears their complaints and provides them with bread each morning and quail every evening to quiet their angry bellies. In our Gospel, Jesus scolds the crowd for thinking only of their physical hunger. The people had received an unexpected, satisfying meal from Jesus, and they wanted more. “Aware that his popularity came more from the food he provided [in last week’s Gospel] than his message,”[1]Jesus wants to elevate their thinking beyond their physical needs. He wants them to understand that we humans have spiritual needs only he can satisfy. What does he mean? Human nature is made up not only of body and mind but of spirit as well. We’re physical and spiritual beings at the same time, and our spiritual nature is what makes us uniquely human. It helps us control the brute instincts we share with animals. It extends our purview beyond ourselves, allowing us to engage meaningfully with the world, with other people, and with God. Our spiritual side is at work when we ask questions, explore the universe, and engage with others. It’s most profoundly evident when we love. Why do we do these things? Because our spiritual side hungers, too. It craves spiritual communion. We have an infinite hunger for truth that can only be satisfied by infinite truth, an infinite hunger for love that can only be satisfied by infinite love, and an infinite hunger for life that can only be satisfied by the infinite source of life itself. We call infinite truth, love, and life God.[2] Our spiritual side hungers for God. It longs for God because only God can satisfy our infinite hunger. We spend a lot of time attending to our physical well-being but not so much our spiritual. Everyone knows that we need to eat wholesome, healthy foods. We spend tons of money on gym memberships and Pilates classes, and our New Year’s resolutions often involve diet and exercise. Yet, church attendance and Biblical literacy are down. We’re neglecting our spiritual well-being, which needs to be nourished and exercised just like our physical side. How do we do that? We turn to Jesus. As we hear in today’s Gospel, God sent Jesus as our Bread of Life, the food that sustains our souls. So, only Jesus can satisfy our infinite hunger. Meditating on his Word in Sacred Scripture satisfies our infinite hunger for truth; spending time and talking with Jesus in prayer fulfills our infinite hunger for love; and receiving Jesus in the Eucharist satiates our infinite hunger for life through the infinite source of life itself. Just as God “gave the Israelites physical bread from the physical heavens to satisfy their [physical] hunger, he gives us Christ . . . to satisfy our spiritual hunger, our spiritual need for eternal life, a participation in the very life of God, which is . . . love.”[3] Many people today are ambivalent about God or don’t believe in God at all. In my experience, these people are infinitely unhappy. Sure, they may look and feel great; they may have the coolest car and the latest iPhone, but these physical, earthly things are fleeting. They’ll never satisfy our infinite hunger for the things that transcend this world. When we fail to feed and exercise our spiritual side, we live half a life.[4] We become isolated and hard of heart, insensitive and uncaring, thinking only of our own needs and happiness and rarely of others. I wonder if that’s what was going on with the people who decided it was a good idea to mock the Last Supper during the Opening Ceremonies last week. By contrast, people of faith who nourish and train their spiritual nature are fully human; they're fully alive. They’re happier, healthier, and more hopefully resilient overall, and they face, endure, and even overcome life’s hardships with grace, grit, and gratitude. Why? Because their daily bread is the infinite source of happiness, health, and hopeful resilience; they drink often from the eternal wellspring of grace, grit, and gratitude. We witnessed an inspiring example in Céline Dion’s triumphant comeback two Fridays ago. By all accounts, Céline Dion is a deeply spiritual woman, and we hear it in her music. The song she sang at the Olympics, The Hymn to Love, is a touching ballad written in 1949 by the French chanteuse Edith Piaf to the love of her life, boxer Marcel Cerdan, who died in a plane crash on his way to New York to visit her. The song speaks playfully of the silly, earthly things we humans do for love, with the singer proclaiming that she’d renounce her friends, steal a fortune, and even dye her hair blonde if her beloved asked her to. The last stanza, however, takes a poignant turn to the spiritual, recalling the day life tore her love away from her. She doesn’t complain; she doesn’t mourn. She sings confidently of the eternal life they’ll share in the immensity of the heavens, boldly confessing her sure faith that God reunites those who love each other. Piaf’s lyrics and Dion’s performance last week testify to the power of the human spirit and remind us that we can’t neglect our spiritual nature. We need to care for it, nurture it, and feed it. If we do, we’ll find that the human spirit, fed by Christ, can overcome anything this world throws at us, like it did for Edith Piaf and Céline Dion. Readings: Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15; Psalm 78; Ephesians 4:17, 20-24; John 6:24-35 [1] Mary M. McGlone, “Hunger for the Bread of Life,” National Catholic Reporter 59, no. 21 (Jul. 19-Aug.1, 2024): 19. [2] Elizabeth A. Johnson, Consider Jesus: Waves of Renewal in Christology (New York: Crossroad Publishing, 2005), 23-24. [3] Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings (Cycle B) (Elk Grove Village, IL: Word on Fire, 2023), 690. [4] William Barclay, The Gospel of John, vol. 1, The New Daily Study Bible (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001), 246. Choose Sides Happy Faith Print 722 Please login or register to post comments.