Friday, February 3, 2012

Blessed are the Full!

Blessed are you who are full now, who are sleek and well-fed, because you are strong enough to feed the hungry, to touch empty stomachs with compassion. But blessed only if you have the mind of the hungry, the mind of Christ. Only if you do not take your food for granted. Only if you are uncomfortable as long as one brother or sister cries in vain for bread or juice or love. Only if you experience what hunger tastes like. Only if you experience your own profound emptiness - how desperately you need the hungry,how far you still are from God. Blessed re the full, if you are always hungry. ~ W.J. Burghardt, S.J. Sir, We would like to see Jesus, (Paulist Press, 1982)


My first homemade pizza from scratch!
I really learned a lot when I ran the soup kitchen in Durango. I thought I had some idea about what hunger was, about how to take care of people. I found out fast that dignity needs to be apart of the combination or it really doesn't matter what you have to offer.


When we learn more and more about Jesus and the way he was with people, it really should be touching us in a way that causes action to happen. It might start out physically, giving  food, money, your time. It should grow from there though. I got so tired of hearing, Can't I just give you the money and let you do the work? Well, yeah! But you miss out on the blessing that doing the work brings.


We grow when we're uncomfortable. If being around hungry, crying people makes you uncomfortable, you should try hanging around them for a while. What starts to happen is you begin to experience hunger for them, with them, and it strikes a cord inside of you that calls you to action. You go out and get some food and you say. Here! Take this food and don't be hungry! That's when it really happens! Heaven opens up and takes notice and look out! You've done it now! You start to see what emptiness is. You get into a conversation with a hungry person and you begin to see how empty you really are. In taking the time to share, you have opened up a spot inside of yourself that can only be filled by God. Cuz it's just too much for anyone person to do. We just can't get our head around how to feed all the hungry people, really, we can't! Then God comes along and shows you that sometimes the hunger is from a lack of spiritual food.


That's why we say, Blessed are the full, if you are always hungry!     

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Kimberly,
A truthful and concise summation of one of life's many paradoxes; through emptiness you can feel full and through fullness can you feel empty.
In adversity and struggle, one finds God.
God Bless You
Geoff