We were born hungry, quickly rooting around for the sustenance that we somehow knew how to find. Being hungry inspires us to look for food, one of the primary needs of life. Jesus recognized that physical hunger in the crowds that followed him after he had fed the 5000 plus folks from one boy’s picnic lunch. It provided a teaching moment for him. While he had their attention, he pointed out that spiritual food, “the food that endures to eternal life,” is just as necessary for our well-being. Intellectually, we know that is true. When we pray the Lord’s Prayer and ask the Father to “give us this day our daily bread,” we somehow know deep inside that we are asking God to provide whatever we may need to sustain us on our journey through this world. We are born as spiritually hungry as we are physically hungry, but it takes us quite a while to recognize what that profound yearning is. St. Augustine said, “Lord, you have made us for yourself, and we are restless until we find rest in you.” It is that hunger in our hearts that keeps us searching for what we may not be able to name for years and years. Someone has suggested that the source of that longing within is a God-shaped hole in our hearts that only God can fill. [I didn’t want to leave “someone” hanging so I googled to find the author of that phrase. What I found was a delight! I urge you to take the time to google “who said we are made with a God-shape hole in our heart?” and peruse to your heart’s content. The sites generally refer to the Augustine quote above and to Blaise Pascal’s “ . . .this infinite abyss can be filled only . . . by God himself.” (Pensees, 10.148), but there is a modern song actually entitled “God-shaped Hole.” I didn’t intend to go in this direction, however, so back to the gospel.] When we finally come to acknowledge that innate desire is a yearning for connection with God, Jesus points us in the right direction, telling us that he is the bread of life, the true bread from heaven, sent by God to satiate our hungry hearts. So it is that “the body of Christ, the bread of heaven” we consume in eucharist brings us ever more deeply into communion with God. We need never be hungry again.