and they all ate and were satisfied.
Imagine that, being satisfied. How many of us can say that we are satisfied? On one hand, it is good to not be satisfied. We should always be striving to be better, holier. On the other hand, most people who are dissatisfied with their lives are not dissatisfied because they are not holy enough. They are dissatisfied because of something they do not have.
Actually the word in Matthew's gospel refers to being satisfied only indirectly. It really means to be full, completely full. And perhaps there in lies the problem.
We want to be full. We know we should be full. When there is emptiness in us we are immediately aware of it. The problem is that we are not very good at identifying what we need to fill us up.
If you watch babies, they put everything in their mouth, their hands, their feet, anything they can get hold of goes into their mouth. Little by little, with help, they learn what should and should not go into their mouth. But even as adults we continue to struggle with this problem, not just the question of what but how much should go into our mouth. No matter how old we get we are still on some level the baby, putting things in our mouth that don't belong. Why do we do this? Because we are trying to fill ourselves up. We need to be full.
The fundamental problem is that we can't fill ourselves up. We are not just physical beings; we are spiritual beings. And that means in order for us to be truly full we must be filled with the Spirit. Nothing else ever can or will satisfy our hunger. We can continue to be babies, grabbing everything we can get our hands on and trying to fill ourselves up, but it will always fail.
On the other hand, we could just let God fill us up. From the soles of our feet to the top of our heads, we could let the Holy Spirit of God fill every cell of our being. In the words of Isaiah,
Come, without paying and without cost, drink wine and milk!
As we go through each day, we feel the hunger, we feel the emptiness, and we must choose. Which will we be: the undiscerning baby, or the discerning adult?
