From Our Pastor
Dear Folks,
Our banners for this year’s parish theme are up!
Hunger and Thirst for Him
How Hungry are you for Jesus? Maybe you are worried about employment, or education or contagion, and have been unable to get to Mass and communion.
I have received several letters from parishioners who are still too afraid of the pandemic to return to Mass. Sometimes the focus is masks, or vaccination percentage, or how other people receive communion, or sanitation efforts. I respect the right of folks who are particularly vulnerable to exercise greater caution, and the parish is attempting to meet your concerns where possible (i.e. see the added ‘masks required’ 8:30am Sunday Mass at Holy Cross Academy).
You were made to know and love God. This is why we can say that Jesus is the deepest desire of our souls. The extended ‘fast’ from Holy Communion is making that even more apparent. As Mass attendance has grown, but not returned to pre-pandemic levels, I observe the devastating spiritual effect of extended time without Jesus in the Eucharist.
Hunger. On a natural level, I did some Googling to just contemplate/understand what hunger is, biochemically, it is moderated by the hormone ghrelin. And I won’t try to give you a summary of the articles, but it is pretty complicated stuff. But what about an emotional level? I have lost weight before (yes, I found it again…. thanks very much), and when I am in a healthy frame of mind it becomes apparent how often my ‘hunger’ is not a biological need, but an emotional one. Seeing that is very eye opening to confronting the deeper needs of my soul and how I can try to fill them with food.
Soooo…. I am asking you to contemplate the health of your soul. How much you hunger for Him has, by analogy, is primarily a matter of satiating your spiritual hunger. Holy Communion is the food of your soul; He is ‘spirit and life’ as I took 20 minutes explaining last week in my homily. But we all need to also recognize how our emotions confound, warp, and redirect our spiritual hunger towards created goods. Our supernatural hunger can be emotionally redirected towards goods like physical health, feeling emotionally full, wealth, control over others, etc.
What we must do, for the health of our souls, is see where we have prioritized some emotional gratification over the good of loving God with our whole hearts minds and souls.
Once we see that our real hunger is for Him, then we can direct our words and deeds accordingly. “Seek first the Kingdom of God, and all things will be added unto you.” May this year be a year of great growth in understanding, increasing, and satisfying our Hunger and Thirst for Him.
Pax,
Father John Mosimann, Pastor
