Yes, days are coming, says the Lord GOD, when I will send famine upon the land:
Not a famine of bread, or thirst for water, but for hearing the word of the LORD.
Then shall they wander from sea to sea and rove from the north to the east in search of the word of the LORD, but they shall not find it.
When I hear of people who are hungry for spiritual food and are not being fed in their churches, I think of Amos's prophecy in the above verses. Hunger is a cultural analogy adapted from the world of economics. Consumers often have very specific and rather refined tastes. They may be hungry but they're picky. They don't like a great many foods.
I broke a rule one morning while I was a chaplain in the VA, and decided to feed a penniless Veteran. I went with her to the cafeteria around 7am, as they were serving breakfast. But instead of the healthy eggs, sausage, orange juice, and toast they offered, she picked up several packages of Twinkies. I was embarrassed to pay for it.
Many spiritually hungry consumers are devouring spiritual Twinkies. Some turn to sports, watching endless replays of touchdowns, home runs, and goals. Racing fans say they hate automobile pileups, especially the fatalities, but they watch them. More people turn to politics for their religion as they consume the same stories day after day. Yesterday's news is today's leftovers, but the newscasters keep serving them up.
Have you noticed that interviewers invariably ask researchers, "What was the most interesting thing about your discovery?" Or they ask foreign journalists about catastrophes in faraway places. They want the most heart wrenching story, the most tragic loss of the most bereft family. They devour the grief of the stricken to hurl it at hungry consumers in safely removed place. They don't want to hear what the knowledgeable experts think. Learning is work and their public is not interested in the effort and sacrifice that new knowledge demands. They want stimulation. "Turn me on! Excite me! Make me feel alive!"
That unquenchable thirst for arousal begins with our unwillingness to drink the life giving water, such as the Lord gave the Samaritan Woman. That insatiable vixen, having disposed of five husbands, and presently devouring a sixth, seeing a seventh candidate -- a stranger at Jacob's Well -- had to check him out. Perhaps he might give her what no other man ever had!
Jacob's Well was actually a cistern, and its water was stale runoff, not fresh, spring water. Following her brief encounter with Jesus, she was no longer thirsty. She drank the life-giving spring of his Sacred Heart. And truly satisfied for the first time in her life, she left her jug at the well to announce the Messiah's arrival.
The Church offers that water -- so useful, lowly, precious, and pure -- to anyone who will drink. They have only to open their hearts to the faith that satisfies with neither artifice nor insult.
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I love to write. This blog helps me to meditate on the Word of God, and I hope to make some contribution to our contemplations of God's Mighty Works.
Ordinarily, I write these reflections two or three weeks in advance of their publication. I do not intend to comment on current events.
I understand many people prefer gender-neutral references to "God." I don't disagree with them but find that language impersonal, unappealing and tasteless. When I refer to "God" I think of the One whom Jesus called "Abba" and "Father", and I would not attempt to improve on Jesus' language.
You're welcome to add a thought or raise a question.