Hunger

"Yon Cassius hath a lean and hungry look." ~William Shakespeare in Julius Caesar

In today's reading from Genesis (daily office lectionary) we see Pharaoh telling Joseph of a dream he had about seven sleek (healthy and fat) cows and seven poor, thing and ugly cows coming up out of the Nile and eating them. The poor, thin and ugly cows didn't even look any better for the bovine cannibalistic meal they had just had either. They were still poor, thin, and the ugliest cows the Pharaoh had ever seen in the land of Egypt. Pharaoh didn't know it, but this was a dream about hunger, a famine that was coming to the land seven years down the road.

Hunger is dangerous. It takes over the mind and clouds a person's thinking. It makes war and calamity. Hunger kills. Hunger was and is the classic reason to go to War. My people are hungry, your people have food or wealth that I can use to get food with. Hunger is the reason that we go in and take it from you. I quoted Julius Caesar because it was the first thing that came to mind when I read that passage. Cassius wanted power. He was hungry for it. So he took it. Caesar was right. He was dangerous.

The gospels are full of stories about food. Physical food and spiritual food feature largely in these tales. Both are needed to take a person to a place where they can fully receive instruction and become who they need to be.

What are you hungry for?