Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
As I get closer to the end of lent, I look to this beatitude and compare it with the temptations of Jesus in the wilderness. Lent is a period of fasting. Jesus fasted for 40 days, and when offered the opportunity to turn stones into bread, he refused. “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
What do we hunger for? What do we thirst for? Our lives are full of desires – things we long to have, to experience, and to be. Hunger and thirst are not “unnatural” things. It is quite normal for us to hunger and thirst. These are desires which are “built into us”. But in this beatitude, Jesus says that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled.
What does that mean for the rest of our desires? That they will not be filled? That there is ultimately something unsatisfying about all the other wants and desires I have in life? We throw around the word “blessed” quite a bit. “We’ve been blessed with good health”; “We’ve been blessed with a certain level of income, a certain kind of house…”
Hunger and thirst come from inside me, but they are only satisfied by something outside me. Jesus is trying to tell us something about the Christian life.
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.