Are You Hungry?
Julián Carrón - To understand the true meaning of the beatitudes we have just heard, it is essential to consider the historical context in which Jesus proclaimed them, as presented at the beginning of the Gospel:
“When Jesus came down from the mountain, he stayed on a plain. There was a large crowd of his disciples and a large crowd of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; even those who were tormented by impure spirits were healed. The whole crowd tried to touch him because power came forth from him and healed them all.”
Those who had come seeking him for healing were the recipients of the beatitudes: people who had come to listen to him and be freed from their illnesses. We must not forget this if we want to understand their meaning today.
Those who listened to him recognized in him a concrete historical presence: Jesus of Nazareth. When people became aware of his existence, they came in great numbers “to hear him and be healed.” But who were these people who were moving?
They were people who felt the need for a word that would set their hearts on fire, so they could live in a way that conformed to their human needs and their desire for happiness. They were people afflicted by illness or tormented by evil spirits, by anxiety, and by anguish. “The whole crowd tried to touch him because a power came out of him that healed them all.” It is precisely to this crowd, attracted by his presence and by his ability to heal and to make life fully alive, that Jesus addresses his appeal: “Blessed.”
They were not blessed because they were good, but because they were needy, and their need drove them to seek Jesus. Seeing them standing there, Jesus looked up at his disciples and said:
“Blessed are you who are poor,
for the kingdom of God is yours.
Blessed are you who are hungry now,
for you will be filled.
Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will be comforted.”
Jesus considers “blessed” all those who, in their poverty, feel such urgency within themselves to live that they cannot do so without an answer that fully satisfies their need for fulfillment. When they perceive that Jesus can give them this life, they set out to look for him! They are blessed because their dissatisfaction has pushed them to seek the superabundance of life that Jesus offers. There is no condition for participating in the newness that he brings, which he calls “the Kingdom of God,” other than this poverty: a profound awareness of one’s own indigence, which pushes man to seek that fullness he cannot give himself.
Only those who have this awareness—that everything is insufficient in relation to human desire—can understand that they are “blessed,” precisely because their need and their poverty allow them to encounter the presence that responds to their expectation.
Their poverty is not a curse but a resource that enables them to recognize the one who can adequately satisfy that need. He makes the same promise to those who are hungry: “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be satisfied.” Blessed is the one who knows the nature of his hunger and who does not limit himself, as we know, to the hunger that can be satisfied with bread, because man does not live by bread alone. He is the one who recognizes that this hunger is a hunger for the satisfaction that nothing in the world can give! Only those who have this hunger will be truly “satisfied,” says Jesus.
The verb “to be filled” conceals a divine passive, often used in the Bible to avoid pronouncing the name of God in vain. The promise that Jesus makes to the hungry is that God will fill them. But is such a bold promise credible? The only person who can discover its credibility is the one who is dissatisfied enough to be bold enough to verify it. It is this boldness we see in those who stood before Jesus, who had come from everywhere to reach him.
That is why Jesus calls them “blessed.” The same verification applies to those who weep: “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will be comforted.” If they decide to participate in the kingdom Jesus makes present, God himself will be their consolation.
Jesus, therefore, draws to himself those who truly know themselves: their poverty, their hunger, their thirst, their weeping. All these profoundly human needs are signs of the mystery of man. Those who feel such urgency that nothing is enough to respond to the full depth of their desire, who are not satisfied with less than everything, will be able to understand why Jesus calls them “blessed.”
This becomes even clearer when contrasted with the other list—those who place their hope in what they have, in what they achieve, in what they possess: “Woe to you who are rich, full, laughing,” because nothing you possess can truly fill you up! This is your curse!
There is no greater challenge for anyone who has any tenderness for themselves and wants to live life to the full than to encounter the person of Christ, as those who stood before him did.
This is shown by the fact that “the whole crowd tried to touch him because power came forth from him and healed them all.” The presence of Jesus, who remains alive in our midst thanks to his resurrection, as we heard in the second reading, will always challenge those who wish to live a life that measures up to their desire for happiness.
Notes from Julián Carrón’s Homily- February 16, 2025
(First Reading: Jer 17:5-8; Psalm 1; Second Reading: 1 Cor 15:12, 16-20; Gospel: Luke 6:17, 20-26)
The author has not revised the text and its translations.
