Hunger and Thirst for God’s Righteousness
“Saint Augustine, in one of his sermons, invents a wonderful device, a kind of psychodrama, to test ourselves. Imagine God coming to you and offering you the following bargain: God offers to give you everything you can imagine in this world and the next as well. Nothing shall be impossible to you and nothing shall be forbidden. There will be no sin, no guilt. Anything you imagine can be yours. There is only one thing you will have to give up: you shall never see my face, says God.
Now if you do not love God above all things, why was there that terrible chill in your heart when you heard those last words? If you would not accept this bargain, look what you just did: you gave up the whole world for God.
But, you may object, this does not test whether my basic desire is to give or to get, just whether I want to get the world or to get God. Not so, for no one can get God. Union with the world can be by getting, by having, by possession. But union with God can be only by giving yourself to God, by God’s getting you. So if you want God, you want to give yourself to God. God has already given himself to you, by the unthinkable generosity of Creation, Incarnation, and Redemption. The only open question is whether you give yourself in return, whether you hunger to be possessed.
Those of us who do not, who are satisfied with ninety years of riches and comfort, are doomed, like Dives. How blessed is Lazarus by contrast! How blessed is poverty, suffering, and anything that destroys the most deadly thing in the world, the quiet drift to Hell! Dissatisfaction is the second best thing there is, because it dissolves the glue that entraps us to false satisfactions, and drives us to God, the only true satisfaction. The road home is the next best thing to home. God is home and dissatisfaction is the road, hunger and thirst for God is the road. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness, for they shall be filled.”
~Peter Kreeft
Now if you do not love God above all things, why was there that terrible chill in your heart when you heard those last words? If you would not accept this bargain, look what you just did: you gave up the whole world for God.
But, you may object, this does not test whether my basic desire is to give or to get, just whether I want to get the world or to get God. Not so, for no one can get God. Union with the world can be by getting, by having, by possession. But union with God can be only by giving yourself to God, by God’s getting you. So if you want God, you want to give yourself to God. God has already given himself to you, by the unthinkable generosity of Creation, Incarnation, and Redemption. The only open question is whether you give yourself in return, whether you hunger to be possessed.
Those of us who do not, who are satisfied with ninety years of riches and comfort, are doomed, like Dives. How blessed is Lazarus by contrast! How blessed is poverty, suffering, and anything that destroys the most deadly thing in the world, the quiet drift to Hell! Dissatisfaction is the second best thing there is, because it dissolves the glue that entraps us to false satisfactions, and drives us to God, the only true satisfaction. The road home is the next best thing to home. God is home and dissatisfaction is the road, hunger and thirst for God is the road. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness, for they shall be filled.”
~Peter Kreeft
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