Our True Food

The hand of the Lord feeds us, He answers all our needs. Sometimes we forget that God is our true food (no matter how delicious physical food may be). How can we remember God's gifts to us in the day-to-day? Let's explore.

I run a food blog. It's super easy for me to get caught up in creating the next best recipe. Even before I started this website, I spent a lot of time thinking about food. What's for dinner? Or, better, what's for dessert?

That's one of the reasons I started The Plant Based Catholic. I saw that food had an integral part in my life and in my health. And food isn't something trivial. Food has meaning.

But beyond physical food that we eat 3+ times a day. God gives us spiritual food.

The refrain we sing in church for Psalm 145 is: The hand of the Lord feeds us, He answers all our needs.

Yes, God feeds us literally. All the delicious plants you can find at the grocery store or in your garden are from God. And praise to Him for those gifts. But God also feeds us with Himself.

This is why, in the Catholic Church, we fast. Because we need reminding that we don't need physical food to survive. We need Jesus.

Jesus is our true food.

We eat and drink in remembrance of Him each time we celebrate Mass. Because Jesus is what truly sustains us. He answers our needs.

It's hard to remember this. Sometimes it feels like physical food is the answer.

The classic post-breakup remedy is a spoon and a pint of ice cream.

After a long day of work or school, it seems comforting to reach for a cookie (or four).

What if, instead, we turned to Jesus?

That bowl of ice cream may be satisfying for a couple minutes. But what about eternal life?

I don't think ice cream is going to cut it (even if it is Nice Cream)

But, Jesus?

The hand of the Lord feeds us, He answers all our needs.

God is the answer. He is our true food. The food of everlasting life. The food of comfort and peace. Of salvation and love.

How do we remember this? How do we remember that Jesus is our true food?

There's several ways:

Remember to pray before meals.

I wrote a post on prayer before meals that you can find here. If we can pause before each meal and remember where our food came from, we are less likely to turn to that same food for comfort.

Ask God for help.

In your regular prayer, seek God for your comfort. Tell Him what you need. In prayer, allow Him to feed you.

Slow down.

I know this is advice we constantly get. But in a world that seems to be speeding faster with every second, we need to hear it as much as possible. When we slow down, we give ourselves the chance to think, to be present, and to remember. This act of thought or remembrance can help us ground ourselves in Truth.