Spiritual food – constantly taking care of the soul.

As you know, one of the basic needs of every human being, apart from sleeping and drinking, is to receive food. This means that no one, no matter how much he wants to, can live without food because everybody, to function well, to be healthy and fit, must be nourished by something. But what about the soul of man? Must it also be raised with something to be able to function and to remain healthy and fit?

In today’s Gospel, we hear the words: “Who can satisfy them with bread here in the wilderness, and how?” (Mk 8:4).
They are words uttered by Christ’s disciples as a kind of wonder at Christ’s same reasoning, that he could not just let go of so many people who had followed him so far without feeding them with something. “But how?” the disciples ask. How can so many people be fed on seven loaves and a pair of fish? The answer was given. When Christ took the loaves and fishes, he gave thanks, blessed, broke, and gave, and they all ate and were filled.
But as in every gospel, we need to see in this event not just some description of the feeding of the multitude; we need to know the theology, the spirituality of it above all. And what does it consist of?

The Evangelist Mark wants to tell us one important thing with this description, that everyone who follows Christ, who follows him and obeys his word, will live and will never starve, spiritually starve, because Christ satisfies with food that not so much the body, but precisely the soul revives, heals and strengthens.
Yes, not the body, but the soul, because we can nourish the body even without Christ, but not the soul…. soul. Man cannot feed his soul alone, but only with Christ, for the soul, to be healthy and fit, does not need bodily food as the body does, but it needs spiritual food. But this, like food of the flesh, man cannot get by himself at any time and in any place, nor can he buy it, but it can only be obtained. It can only be accepted as a gift and grace from God if one follows and walks after Christ.

Well, let us consider, how is our soul? Are we taking care of it? Are we nourishing it with that spiritual food that Christ gives? Do we keep it healthy and fit, or do we care only for the body and forget the soul? Whether and how we care for the soul is seen in our very attitude towards it and whether and how we care for it. The approach to Holy Confession and especially to Holy Communion. But let us remember that it is not the health of the body, but the health of the soul that is most important in the life of each one of us.

The soul, like the body, is also an integral part of us, a part of our life. For without it, as without the body, we cannot exist. Although it is invisible, it is within us, and therefore it is also our task to care for it, just as we care for our bodies daily. Let us not neglect it, but let us follow Christ and walk after Him, for where Christ is, there is also spiritual food, the food of the soul. He is the broken food and given daily, even at this Holy Mass, because He wants our body to be fed and healthy and our soul.

Let us, therefore, come to Holy Communion often, not out of compulsion, but out of love for Christ and out of a desire for life and a healthy soul. Therefore, let us also pray at this Mass to follow Christ daily and receive his body as typically as possible as spiritual food for the soul.