Article August 29, 1931 Issue

Hunger and Thirst

KATE W. BUCK

In the Beatitudes is the promise, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." These familiar words seemed suddenly fraught with new meaning to one who was earnestly seeking for the spiritual interpretation of the Master's sayings. As in most of his promises, there is something incumbent upon those who would receive the blessing of fulfillment. In this instance there must be honest hunger and thirst for righteousness before the blessing of attainment can be fully realized. A state of hunger naturally creates the impulse to eat, even as a sense of thirst precedes the desire to drink. The prophet Amos writes warningly, "Woe to them that are at ease in Zion," because they seek no further than the flesh-pots. In such a case there is as yet neither hunger nor thirst for anything beyond them; there is only stupefying satisfaction with what materiality has to give. It is wise to recall very often the words of the Psalmist, and remember that one cannot be fully satisfied until awake in His likeness—the conscious image or full expression of the infinite God.

On the second page of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy assures us that "the desire which goes forth hungering after righteousness is blessed of our Father, and it does not return unto us void." It is comparatively easy to converse about righteousness and its desirability. Sometimes the implication is that the one addressed needs it very much, whether or not the one who is pointing out to another the need for holiness feels keenly enough his own limited sense of it. This attitude might indicate a phase of self-righteousness instead of God-righteousness—a pharisaical thought, deadening in its suggestion of complacency, and evidencing neither hunger nor thirst after righteousness. The one who really hungers for good will earnestly seek to be fed, and will not cease seeking until the hunger is appeased. There is nothing superficial in this kind of hunger, for a starving man wastes no time in looking at and discussing different kinds of food, but eats and is filled. Neither does a thirsty man discourse eloquently about clear, cool water, and its value, but he finds the satisfying draft and drinks gratefully in order that his thirst may be quenched.

Thus one who is so athirst for righteousness that he diligently seeks, daily and hourly, the water of Life, which Christ alone can give, will ever slake his thirst, and will be filled according to the sincerity of his desire. Jesus said, "I am the living bread," and in the Lord's Prayer he taught his disciples to say, "Give us this day our daily bread." Hence the bread for which we pray is the Christ, Truth, which alone gives life, the life of Spirit. When one actually learns how to partake of this bread, he will hunger no more; and when one learns to drink of the water of Life, which Christ supplies, there is no more thirst. Sometimes people mistake mere intellectual hunger for spiritual hunger, and this is a dangerous subtlety. The mental satisfying of the former with tempting material morsels may breed contentment; and so one fails to look higher. This is not the road to spiritual exaltation and understanding.

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