I went to mass at Saint John the Baptist in Costa Mesa after work on Friday afternoon.  I’ve never seen so many attendees at daily mass!  It was amazing!  (To paint a picture, Interfaith probably would’ve been full!  But of course, it was an actual parish with lots of seats, so it wasn’t completely full, but it was still a lot!)

The priest’s homily started out with, “more food, more full, more sleep.”  He went on to say that food gives us pleasure.  Fasting is a form of prayer because in the process of depriving ourselves of something so self-pleasuring, we come to understand what it feels to be so hungry that we long for something much more than physical nourishment.  Less food, less sleep, more awake.

When hungry, we start to see things differently.  We lose our ignorance and become more aware of pain and suffering.  We are forced to acknowledge “the bad” in order to realize how great we really have it when things are “normal”.  We are transformed from proud and respectable shepherds to hungry, vulnerable, and humble lambs who will only be able to find food if we let God, our Good Shepherd, lead us to nourishment that will fill our souls beyond our human lifetimes.

Lord, help us to stay hungry for You.