Reflecting on the Beatitude “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they shall be satisfied,” Pope Francis said that it is important to find out what enables us to “live well.”
Every person is called to rediscover what really matters, what they really need, what makes them live well and, at the same time, what is secondary, and what they can do without.
Speaking from the Apostolic Library due to the quarantines caused by Coronavirus, the pope reflected on how all people have a thirst for what truly matters.
In the Scriptures we find the expression of a thirst more profound than the physical one, which is a desire found at the root of our being. A Psalm says: “God, you are my God, I pine for you; my heart thirsts for you, my body longs for you, as a land parched, dreary and waterless” (Psalm 63: 2). The Fathers of the Church speak about this restlessness which inhabits the heart of man. Saint Augustine says: “Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless, until it repose in Thee” [1]. There is an inner thirst, an inner hunger, a restlessness… In every heart, even in the person who is most corrupt and farthest from goodness, there is a hidden yearning for the light, even if it is found under the rubble of deceit and errors, but there is always the thirst for truth and goodness, which is thirst for God. It is the Holy Spirit that inspires this thirst: He is the living water that has moulded our dust, His is the creative breath that gave it life.
The Holy Father suggested that this thirst for goodness has concrete effects, such as in the life of a married couple. “For example,” he said, “when a man and a woman marry they have the intention of doing something great and beautiful, and if they keep this thirst alive they will always find the way forward, in the midst of problems, with the help of Grace.”
The pope assured that, as Jesus promised, this thirst for justice will always end well.
Jesus proclaims in this beatitude that there is a thirst that will not be disappointed; a thirst that, if satisfied, will be sated and will always end well, because it corresponds to the very heart of God, to His Holy Spirit Who is love, and also to the seed that the Holy Spirit has sown in our hearts. May the Lord give us this grace: to have this thirst for justice which is precisely the desire to find it, to see God and to do good to others.
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