18th SUNDAY OF THE YEAR
‘‘Work for food that endures to eternal life’’
Jack Dempsey was one of the most famous
and popular boxers in history. On July 4th
1919 he reached the pinnacle of his career
when he defeated Jess Willard to become
heavyweight champion of the world. The next
morning when he awoke in his hotel room he
had a strange sense of emptiness inside. When
asked to explain this surprising feeling, he
replied: ‘success didn’t taste the way I thought
it would. I had won the world championship,
so what’? Down through the ages people have
discovered as Dempsey did, that worldly
success, fame, adulation do not satisfy the
deepest hungers of the human heart. Seeking
satisfaction in the things of the world is like
chasing the wind. Something more is needed,
and in chapter six of St. John’s Gospel Jesus
points the way. He is the Bread of Life and
our hearts will always be restless until they
rest in Him. Every longing that we try to
satisfy apart from Him will fall short. Come
to think of it, the main difference between the
greatest saint and the greatest sinner is where
they go to satisfy the hungers of their hearts.
The seventeenth century French philosopher
Blaise Pascal expressed it better than most
when he wrote: ‘There is a God-shaped
vacuum in the heart of each person which
cannot be satisfied by any created thing, but
only by God the Creator made known by
Jesus Christ’.
You must be logged in to post a comment.