The four hungers

First letter to the Corinthians -11-23 - the remembrance of the Lord's Supper. 

Fittingly on a Sunday we think about the Mass on a day where Christians come together in the breaking of the bread. 

"Priest of God, celebrate this Mass as if it were your first Mass, your last Mass, your only Mass." - words in the sacristy of Mother Teresa's church. 

Beware in the daily Mass goer the sense of numbness or routine - can be a difficulty. This talk then is an attempt to recapture what Saint John Paul II called "Eucharistic amazement"

The four hungers in life to try to be in touch with- hunger for meaning, for good food, for a context for my suffering and a context to my hope. 

Hunger for meaning, for guidance, for wisdom - much in life superficial; quick- fix wisdom does not satisfy. Your word, Lord, is a lamp for my path, a light for my eyes. At Mass we are fed from two tables, the table of the Word and the table of the Bread and both are equal. There will always be something in the readings that will feed me. Jeremiah - " when your words came, I devoured them" 

Hunger for good food - the Mass is not just the table of the Word, but also the Last Supper. "I am the Bread of Life, who comes to me shall not hunger, who believes in me will never be thirsty." So much in our lives is fast food - it distracts and it fails to satisfy. In the Mass when I receive You, it satisfies in so many ways but it makes me hunger for more.

The Mass is also the sacrifice of Calvary, it is here I look for context for the suffering in my life so that I can give it a meaning and a shape. United with Your Cross, my pain can start to feel different - I have somewhere to put safely the pain in my life. Cardinal Hume said there is a difference between scuffing your cross along the road and lifting it - do you drag your Cross behind you or take it up and tuck in behind Christ? There is a life giving sweetness in the heart of pain carried this way - there is no way around suffering, but there is a life giving way through. 

The Mass is above all Easter Day, we are celebrating the Risen Christ, we are receiving the Risen Body. when life is dark, or puzzling, or dispiriting, I can come to Mass and renew my trust that the last word in our life will belong to God. Remember Julian of Norwich - all will be well. 

"I am the Resurrection and the Life" 

 Touching the four hungers is the guard against the Mass ever becoming routine.

Try not just to say the words, but to pray the words - the switch changes! 

Rolheiser says something in a article called The One Great Fidelity - the Church has fouled up most of the commandments down the ages, but we have always managed to be true to the instruction "do this in memory of Me". The important thing is to be there!

Bonhoeffer - instructing young engaged couples - he used to tell them that it is not the love that will sustain their marriage but the marriage that will sustain their love.

The Mass is a ritual container, just as the marriage is a ritual container to hold the love