Beatitudes: Blessed Are the Hungry and Thirsty

Happy are people who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness, because they will be fed until they are full.
Matthew 5:6

Rain falls in the night,
Soaking into thirsty soil.
I thirst too.  Rain falls.
HAIKU

As with the earlier beatitudes we have considered, this one seems counter intuitive.  Why would being hungry and thirsty be a blessing?  Why be happy about the deprivation of the basic physical needs of food and water?  Perhaps a hint to this comes to me out of an experience: I was working hard all day out in the blazing sun in over 100 degree temperatures; frequently I needed to make my way to the water station and take a long drink of the cool water.  How satisfying that was!  How tasty the water!  How it made me feel refreshed!  My thirst was a blessing in letting me know how much I needed water. Without the thirst I might have kept on in the sun until heat exhaustion set in.  Let’s explore this beatitude and see where it takes us.

Hunger and Thirst 

One of the first things to note is that this beatitude appears in two different versions.  In Matthew, as given above, it focuses on the hunger and thirst for “righteousness” (more on what this might mean later!).  The version in Luke leaves out the reference to righteousness.  For me these alternative versions suggest that the blessing has both an outer and an inner meaning. 

Outwardly, we have basic needs that require filling just for survival: food, drink, shelter, security, clothing, health, warmth, clean air.  Without some of these we soon die.  Without others, we may survive but with a severely diminished life.  To feel the hunger and thirst (for food and drink, literally, and for the other needs) is the body’s way of signaling to us to pay attention to these needs and do something to satisfy them for the sake of survival and well-being.  When we do satisfy them, when we can, we feel good, we’re happy.  Moreover, when outer needs are satisfied we have the capacity to act productively in the world – to work, to create, and to serve others as we feel called.  Yet with these outer needs, the satisfaction (being “fed,” above) is temporary; the needs are recurring and the hunger and thirst return if we do not keep acting to satisfy them.

Inwardly, our needs are in the realm of spirit.  At the deepest level we need to be loved and to love, to belong, to find meaning and purpose, and to discover our true identity as individuals.  While these needs can also be satisfied, they always remain and there is always potential for growth.  When our need for water is satisfied, we are not thirsty for a while (until the need reasserts itself).  When our need to be loved is satisfied, it whets the appetite for more and evokes a response of reciprocated love.  These spiritual hungers and thirsts are about our deepest desires, not the shallow ones such as for prestige, wealth, or power (powerful as these may be!).

Deepest of all is our desire for relationship with the mystery we call the Divine.  Psalm 42 expresses the ache of this desire.  It says, in part:

As a deer longs for flowing streams
So my soul longs for you, O God.
I thirst for the living God,
I ache for God day and night.

In my life I experienced this hunger for the Divine in a period of doubt that lasted a dozen years or more.  My basic childhood faith had been challenged by a friend, and I felt the foundation collapse beneath me.  I lived in two worlds: one of doubting all that I had been taught and relied on, and another of desire to find my way back again somehow.  I found I could not create that renewed or transformed faith by my own efforts, but my desire for it kept me from despair and in the search.  Eventually my faith returned as a gift (not my own doing), my hunger was satisfied and further whetted at the same time.  This journey continues.

Psalm 63 could well have been one of my own writing during that time.  Part of it reads:

O God, you are my God, I seek you,
My soul thirsts for you;
My flesh faints for you
As in a dry and weary land
Where there is no water.

What is the Blessing?

What is it, then, that makes a blessing of hunger and thirst?  As hinted above, hunger and thirst serve to tell us what we most need.  They are a guide to that which makes us most complete and whole.  This operates outwardly regarding our physical needs and at least as importantly inwardly for our spiritual needs.  They draw us to what is “more,” to what is deepest, to what is most essential.  How might I have been able to navigate my period of doubt without a thirst to drive me on in my search? 

Of course, as with all things, our hungers and thirst need to be carefully discerned.  Sometimes we mistake what seems to be satisfying (especially if it gives immediate gratification) for the deeper needs that are truly satisfying.  A guide to this is: What lasts?  What leads to even more?

Hunger and thirst also bless by letting us know our real position vis a vis the mystery, God.  We learn, by the experience of the thirst for what is deep, that we are ultimately dependent on God alone.  Not on ourselves: this is a challenge to our desire for ego-control, for being in charge of ourselves all by ourselves.  Not on others: while parents, family, friends, colleagues may satisfy some of our needs, we are not ultimately dependent upon them.  We are freed from such dependence (or co-dependence) as we recognize that God does provide.  Such trust in the Divine mystery is crucial to responding to our thirsts.  We come to a place of deep and appropriate humility (beatitude 3, the topic of the last blog!).

“Righteousness”

The element that the Matthew version of the beatitude introduces is “righteousness.”  His version points specifically to a hunger and thirst for this.  What is it?  I find this word a bit jargony.  It’s used in sacred texts but is seldom used on common speech.  If I were to try to explain it, I would substitute some other words and descriptors.

Outwardly, I would say righteousness is “right action,” that is, doing the right thing, the good thing, the life-affirming up-building thing in any situation.  This is contextual: it depends on the situation.  It is founded in desire for the good, not on duty or rule-following.  Jesus critiqued the religious leaders of his day for following the letter of the laws, but not their underlying spirit.  Our desire must not simply be to “act right” (in the sense of following the rule), but to “be right at heart,” to act from deep alignment with what is good. 

Inwardly, I would say righteousness is being in alignment with the goodness that is God; to be “like God” as fully as we are able.  This would be to have compassion, to love our neighbor (which, it turns out, is anyone who comes into our orbit), to do justice. 

What does the Lord require of you
But to do justice,
And to love kindness,
And to walk humbly with your God?
Micah 6:8

This inner and outer righteousness ultimately stem from the same source, our relationship with the Divine, and are in alignment with each other and with the Divine.

Paradoxically, perhaps, this does not mean we are to hunger and thirst for “experiences” of God, for our happiness, or for being blessed.  These are secondary and do come to us often as the result of our “righteousness.”  The main thing is this alignment with God, this depth relationship with the Divine, our identity with the Goodness that is God.  This is expressed, I believe, in the saying of Jesus: “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. … But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matt. 6:25,33)

Being Filled (Satisfied)

A few words about “satisfied” (or “fed until they are filled”) in this beatitude.  Commentators on the beatitude point out that the Greek word translated as “satisfied” in some translations is a superlative form.  It means not just ordinary satisfaction, but filled to the brim, overflowing, satiated.  It is all we need and even more.  Abundance.  Yet what is given, what is provided is not always exactly what we think we are thirsty for, but what is most good for us, what is most genuinely needed.  It satisfies – to overflowing – our deepest need.

I am reminded of a dream I had once.  In the dream I was hiking in a parched area on a warm day.  Thirst was part of the circumstance.  Suddenly I heard a big voice coming from above me that said, “There is an artesian well in this area; if you find it you can take out a patent on it.”  Curious message.  An artesian well is one that bubbles up constantly, without ceasing, in all conditions.  It is an inexhaustible source of water.  It is more than needed to satisfy any one person’s thirst.  And, finding it, the idea of a “patent” said to me that once found it, I would always have access to it.  There are many layers to this dream as I have interpreted it for myself, but clearly it is a great image of “blessed are the thirsty for they shall be satisfied” and that which satisfies is the living water of the artesian well.

We have looked at this beatitude in both its inner and outer meanings.  But how do these two relate?  Some thoughts as I have reflected on this:

• If the outer hunger or thirst is satisfied, but not the inner, the outer work and energy will sooner or later be exhausted, will dry up; we will burn out.

• And if the inner is satisfied but not the outer, the inner life will become attenuated, and even spoil as it finds no way of outer expression in work, creativity, or service. Moreover, if the body (the outer) is in dire need, the capacity for inner work is compromised.

• While both are needed and they are interdependent, for me it seems that the first to cultivate is the inner life, which can then guide and energize the outer.

• This may be what is reflected in Jesus saying, “For those who want to save their life will lose it and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”

• And finally, the inner thirst points to the outer: when one’s own hunger and thirst are satisfied to overflowing, this blessing naturally seeks to find expression outwardly in work, creativity, and service to others.  The latter may, in particular, take the form of participating in satisfying the hungers and thirsts of others.

For me, then, the heart of this beatitude is that hunger and thirst are blessings in guiding us to what is most important in our lives, both outwardly and inwardly.  Crucially, they are grounded in the goodness (“righteousness”) of the Divine mystery, and when we follow these hungers and thirsts we will be filled to overflowing!

Pause and Reflect

• What is your deepest desire right now? For what do you most thirst?

• What have been your experiences with hunger and thirst

  • Outwardly?

  • Inwardly?

• If you were to be fully satisfied, what would be next?

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