The Christian life is a long and tough road. We all need food for the journey.
My brother is a good runner. He ran in high school and college, and is still very good at mid to long distances, including qualifying for the Boston marathon. But I'd like to tell you about the time when the dream of every little brother actually became a reality: the time when the little brother got the upper hand and outmatched his big brother. Once in my life I beat my brother, and it was glorious.
It was a half marathon in southern Ohio when we were in seminary. I trained enough to be ready, but my brother was in the zone and was looking to complete an impressive race at a crazy pace. I remember seeing him loop back nearly a mile ahead of me at one point. I continued to work hard at my pace and around mile 11 I was shocked to see my brother lying in the grass... "Are you okay?" He says he's fine but just couldn't keep up that pace and decided to rest for a bit since he wasn't going to make his goal time. So, since I knew he was alright, what is the next thing a compassionate brother would do? I say "Okay, great, see you at the finish line!" and I keep running. He wasn't mad; he knew I was trying for a goal as well.
But the reason his body hit the wall and made him stop was that his breakfast was a granola bar and a banana. And then he hoped to run 13.1 miles. Bad idea. That is where my one super-power comes into play, I can eat and run and not get too bothered by it. So, I won that race because I had the fuel I needed.
Because our bodies need to eat to compete. When I was in HS playing soccer or basketball every day, I needed a lot of food to keep working. I couldn't have survived the season if I was malnourished all the time.
Souls also need to eat to compete. We are all born into a spiritual battle, and you can't take a neutral side in the middle of a battlefield. You are either on one side or the other, and you will find it a real battle as soon as you begin.
Or to use the analogy from the first reading today, the Christian life is a long journey, like a half-marathon, and you aren't going to get to the end if you aren't being fed. That Christian journey is really outlined well in today's second reading: All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling must be removed from you, along with all malice. And be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ. So be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love.
You are what you eat, in a quite literal sense, physically. The same goes for your soul: so what are you filling your spirit with? If it isn't the Lord Jesus, day after day in prayer and week after week in the Eucharist, you may not finish the race. We all need food for our spiritual journey.
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