At the time when my brother and I were in middle and elementary school respectively, I remember that my mom tried to be always on time in fixing for us breakfast and lunch according to our school schedules.<\/p>\n
Most of the time I remember that it was my dad who took us to school, and my mom picked us up.<\/p>\n
When we came home from school, my mom had almost always finished making food. The truth is I don’t remember much about the variety of dishes we ate, but what I do remember was that almost always, there was some type of rice as a side dish.<\/p>\n
Sometimes there was red rice, and sometimes white rice with peas. And on some other days, it was white rice, which my brother didn’t enjoy very much. My mom then told him to put banana slices, and that way he would eat it.<\/p>\n
In my very young perception, there was a season that seemed eternal to me, when my mom only made rice with peas. After a few days of the same, I began to eat only the rice, leaving out the peas, since I was already tired of them. When my mom noticed, she insisted that I eat them, because she said they were very healthy.<\/p>\n
More days passed, and continuing with the rice with peas, it was the rice that I began to be tired of. It was yummy, but After eating the same thing so many times, I was ready for something different. I told my mom::<\/p>\n
\u2013I don’t want rice with peas anymore.<\/p>\n
To which my mom replied:<\/p>\n
\u2013Okay, what are you hungry for?<\/p>\n
And I don’t remember answering anything specific.<\/p>\n
Now, I share with you the question that my mom asked me, what are you hungry for? In this case, I’m not talking about food, but about your interior life.<\/p>\n
What are you hungry for?<\/p>\n
Continuing with the food analogy, there are times when we have some type of craving, which sometimes is related to a need of the body.<\/p>\n
I remember during each of my pregnancies, when I went for routine checkups, they would sometimes ask me what kind of cravings I was having, and then they would move on to the blood test results. On some occasions for some pregnant mothers, cravings are directly related to the body’s deficiencies, and from there they give suggestions to compensate and level out what is necessary.<\/p>\n
I ask you again, in your interior life, what are you hungry for?<\/p>\n
On one occasion, I heard a 14-year-old girl say:<\/p>\n
\u2013I’m hungry, someone feed me.<\/p>\n
Interestingly enough, she was at her house. She could, with all her ability, get out of her bed, go to the kitchen, open the refrigerator, warm something up, or prepare something to eat.<\/p>\n
For whatever reason she didn’t do it. At least not that I saw. Maybe she didn’t know she could do it, no one taught her how, or maybe she was just lazy. But there was food available to her.<\/p>\n
There was a time when many people were looking for Jesus, there were so many that the apostles did not know how they were going to feed them. But in the end, no one was left hungry.<\/p>\n
That enormous group of people who were fed by Jesus were not only satisfied, but there was also an overabundance of food. They came to Jesus, and just for being there he invited them to eat.<\/p>\n
With Jesus, there is no lack. Nobody was left hungry.<\/p>\n
When you and I are hungry, do we know where to look for food? Or, are we content to stay where we are, without moving, and do we adopt an attitude of\u00a0\u00a0\u201cwe\u2019ll see” what happens to us?<\/p>\n
God is not greedy, but generous. God does not keep love from us. Maybe it’s that we don’t see, that we don’t know how to look in the right place, that no one has told us that we can get up and go to the place where that food is available for each one of us.<\/p>\n
God satisfies, and he\u2019s ready to give you what your soul needs. Can you get up? Do you want to get up? Do you know where to look and find that food?<\/p>\n
Pay attention to your cravings, and you may discover if they come from deeper places within yourself. This way you can find where to feed your interior with what you really need.<\/p>\n
Jesus satisfies, eat from what he offers you, follow his guidance.<\/p>\n
It is not only about what God gives us, but also about what we can, or know how to receive. God gives in superabundance.<\/p>\n
And as for the call to share, perhaps the invitation is for us to trust that what we have to share can be enough in His love. God receives what we give Him, blesses it and multiplies it.<\/p>\n
If the Spirit leads you, ask Jesus the carpenter where you can go to receive what He has for you, as well as to give Him what you have to share.<\/p>\n
Marisol<\/p>\n
P.S. We can hear about how many people were fed by Jesus, in the readings for the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time, year\/cycle B.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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