Image: Corita Kent, ‘enriched bread’, serigraph, 1965.
‘Hunger and nourishment’
Andrew Collis
Ordinary Sunday 18, Year B
Psalm 51; 2 Samuel 11:26–12:13a; John 6:24-35
John’s gospel refers to the miracles of Jesus (and there are seven in all) as semeia or signs. John understands them differently from the other three evangelists, the authors of the synoptic gospels, who call them dunamis, meaning powers. John is telling us that a mere fascination with the miracles misses their deeper significance. A sign, by nature, points beyond itself to a deeper reality.
John 6 is called by scholars the Bread of Life discourse. It is richly symbolic. It is richly sacramental or Eucharistic. John’s gospel does not include an institution of Holy Communion. Instead, we have this richly poetic chapter. Jesus is employing bread as a metaphor for our deepest needs. The discourse is about hunger and nourishment.
You may want to think about hunger and nourishment as you experience them. It seems fitting to consider seven hungers and nourishments, but the list is by no means exhaustive.
First, there is the hunger that is physical, and the nourishment we need is food and shelter. We are being faithful to the gospel whenever and wherever we address this hunger. It’s about care of bodies, sustainable farming practices, fair trade and distribution, welfare and economics. It’s about health. It’s about eating well, fresh fruit and vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts, clean water – eating less meat and saturated fat and refined sugars. It’s about sharing meals. It’s about enjoying mealtimes. It’s about affordable housing and hospitality.
Second, there is the hunger of loneliness, and the nourishment we need is companionship, which sometimes is a simple gesture. Nick Cave writes: “Looking back, my most lonely times were when I was separated from my spiritual self, and perhaps I had even affected a certain protective distance from these concerns. These days, however, I try my best to maintain genuine relations with the world – with my loved ones, with nature, and with the sacred – in a comprehensive and participatory manner.”
The third hunger is the hunger for forgiveness, and the nourishment we need is peace of heart (reconciliation). It is often hard to forgive. And sometimes it is even harder to let ourselves be forgiven – repentance/penitence entails acknowledgement of wrongs committed and the consequences of choosing to do harm. Psalm 51 is regarded a song of repentance by King David (2 Samuel 11ff.): “Reshape my heart so that I, too, may teach others your way.” A heart hungry for forgiveness ought recognise a heart hungry for justice … too many hearts hungry for justice …
Yesterday, Northern Territory Police Commissioner Michael Murphy and fellow officers undertook a Yolŋu ceremony of rebirth, following an historic apology at Garma Festival addressing the force’s dark past of racism against First Nations people.
The fourth hunger is self-esteem, and we need emotional support to nourish us, not so much advice or answers or the right thing to do, but people who stand by us with respect and with concern. It’s natural to want to make another person happy, but often we have too small a notion of happiness, and often we succumb to short-term fixes. It’s about encouraging in one another the responsibility of each to strive, to be, to accept, to venture, to create …
The fifth hunger is learning. We need that our whole lives. We never stop learning. We never have all the answers. We need the nourishment of wisdom. Here at South Sydney we have St Lydia’s Library. We have regular Gospel Conversation. We have art and poetry workshops, journalists trained in cultural and political analysis. Our artwork by Corita Kent includes these words by Albert Camus: “Great ideas, it has been said, come into the world as gently as doves. Perhaps then, if we listen attentively, we shall hear, amid the uproar of empires and nations, a faint flutter of wings, the gentle stirring of life and hope.”
The sixth hunger is spiritual growth, and for that we need a prayer life that is both private and public, because every one of us is a private individual and a public person too. We need both.
The seventh hunger, and nourishment, is community. We need a community that welcomes us, that gives us our identity – a community that values diversity, equity and inclusion. “I love, therefore I am”, “I am loved, therefore I am”, or even, “I am because we are”. The Gadigal word for Country, Ngura, is a comprehensive word for community.
You may want to consider the hungers you have, and what to do about them. Or, you may want to think about the nourishment you can give to someone else, and where you might begin – offering nourishment to those who are physically hungry or those who have the hunger of loneliness or the need for forgiveness or the hunger for self-esteem or the hunger for learning. I am because we are.
In Word and Sacrament Christ continues to say to us, through us: “I am the bread of life. No one who comes to me will ever be hungry; no one who believes in me will be thirsty.” Amen.
Draws on a homily by Brian Joyce.
