Father Randy Koenigsknecht
Watch the Homily
Listen to the Homily
Why do we chase things that never satisfy? Father Randy reflects on Isaiah’s invitation to trust God completely, the life of King David, and how Christ alone fulfills the deepest longings of every human heart.
Read the Homily
Why spend your money for what is not bread? Your wages for what fails to satisfy. Heed me and you shall eat well, you shall delight in rich fare. Come to me heedfully, listen, that you may have life.
Why do you spend your wages for what fails to satisfy? It’s a father who sees, who sees all the ways that we try and manage, the ways that we try and fill the gaps that are left in our own hearts, ways we try and measure up to be good enough, we try and find security, connection, all those pieces. It’s a father who sees those needs and who loves and wants to offer us a new way, a way that isn’t just trying hard, that’s not going to take all our time, all our energy, but will actually satisfy us. Heed me, you will have life, I will give you life and I will satisfy your heart for free.
You can find it in me. And just the reality that the father sees us, he sees you and your thirst and your hunger and your needs, he sees and he loves, he knows, he knows what you’ve been through, he knows what you’ve done, he knows what you need, what you want, and he offers that real connection the real satisfaction, the bread that will truly satiate us, the food that will satisfy if we’re willing to leave behind the counterfeits, if we’re willing to leave behind all the ways that we try and fill ourselves, achievement, man, if I just got to this place, if I just was saying these prayers, if I wasn’t struggling with these sins, then I’d be good, then I’d be alright. You know, if I just had a social standing, if others saw me, if I was accepted, be alright, I’d be okay.
Recognition, control, greed, man, if I just had this stuff, I would be secure, I would be safe. Lust, I want to be seen and loved for who I am, but that’s dangerous. And so the cheap outlet is not love, it’s lust, because there’s no vulnerability, there’s no possibility of truly being hurt or of being truly loved for that matter either.
It’s shallow, it’s a counterfeit, and the Lord wants us to come to him in all these places, all these ways we’ve been trying to fill ourselves, all these hurts in our own hearts, to come to him so that he can bless us, so that he can give us life, he can satiate us. He says, I’ll give you the promises that I made to David. What exactly are those? What did he promise David? Well, if we continue reading Isaiah, we see it.
It’s the verses we didn’t actually read today, but they’re the next two. This is what the Lord proclaims to you. If you come to me, I will give you life, and he says that he will do this for you.
As I made him a witness to peoples, a leader and commander of peoples, so shall you summon a nation you knew not, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you, because the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, has glorified you. That’s what the Lord promises. That is what he wants to do in your life, wants to do for you.
Let’s look back at David. His promises remain to him. We all know the basics of David’s life.
He’s the greatest king of Israel. He’s the one who, as a boy, slew the giant Goliath, did all these wonderful things. David was also the one who was forgotten, the one who largely went unseen.
Samuel, he comes to his father, Jesse’s house, looking to anoint one of his sons, and his father, Jesse, brings out all of his sons from oldest to second youngest. And Samuel goes down the line, not this one, not this one, not this one, not this one. And he gets to the end, and he has to ask Jesse, do you have any more sons? Because none of these.
And it’s only then that Jesse says, well, yeah, I got David. Bring him out. His own father, David’s own father, did not see the greatness that was within him, did not see the great king that he would become, the man of faith who would serve the Lord.
But God saw. God saw David out in the fields, and God knew him. And God knew the plans that he had for him.
And he called him. And David came. And David was anointed.
He received the promise of the kingdom to come. He goes out. He slays Goliath.
It’s great. It’s glorious. And then it takes a turn.
Saul is a man who’s trying to feed himself. Saul is trying to find his security and popularity in his people and acceptance by them. And so when David becomes popular, Saul has to kill him, to try and kill him, so that he can be secure, because he’s not being fed by the Lord.
That is what it leads to. So David will spend much of his life in exile, fleeing before him, living among foreign nations, not even among his own people. And in the midst of it all, he is faithful to the Lord.
He continues to let the Lord feed and satiate his heart, even as he has to trust in the promises yet to come. And the day comes where he’s made king. And he receives the greatest promise.
Through your line, the Messiah will come. You’ll have an everlasting kingdom. You know, if that was the end of his story, David’s story would be great.
We all love an underdog rising up. But what comes next is what really makes David interesting. What really makes him a proud figure for us today, one that we should follow.
Because only after David has received all these promises, only after he’s been faithful to the Lord in all these trials for so many years, that David has his greatest fall. The moment when we least expect him to, and he should have it all put together, that he stops going to the Lord to be fed. And while all of his armies are off at war, he stays back.
He sees a woman, commits adultery with her. And to cover it up, he has her husband killed in the war. Said he can marry her so that no one would know.
But God saw. God knew him. God knew what was in his heart.
The Lord did not delight in what David had done. He had done great evil, horrific. But God still loved him and still knew the man that he could become, and that he would be.
And why David is so great is that response he has. He repents and he turns back to the Lord, and he gives his life over yet again. And that is what we are all called to do.
What can separate us from the love of God, St. Paul says? Trial, distress, the sword, persecution, hunger, your own sins. God still loves you. God still calls you home.
He still reaches out to his children, to those who are broken, those who need him. Nothing can separate us from the love of God but our own choice. Will I let him back in? Or will I turn my back because I don’t believe that I’m worthy enough? Because I’m not willing to actually let him satiate that part of my heart that cries out to be held, to be loved, to be seen, to be known.
David repented and turned back. He stopped trying to feed himself. And that’s what the Lord wants from us.
Stop working so hard. Stop trying so desperately to please me, to please other people, to make whatever it is work. Let me provide for you.
Let me take care of you. Because when we turn to him, the external circumstances may not change. Life may still be very hard and probably will be.
But the internal is what’s transformed right away. Because I know who I am. I know who is on my side.
I know who loves me. And I know that he is working on my behalf. And so I do not have to make it all work out on my own.
Because if he’s working for my good, I just have to follow along with him. I have to do the next right thing. Just take the next step with him.
And I will get where I need to be. That he sees that you can bring your hunger to him. You don’t need to fill those spaces anymore.
You don’t have to keep buying and striving for things that will not satisfy. You don’t have to provide your own connection, your own security, your own identity. God sees.
And when you make that connection, when you’re living with him, when he’s truly filling you, those words will come true. So shall you summon a nation you knew not, a nation that did not know you, shall run to you. Because the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, has glorified you.
Because you have found the source of true food. You have found the bread on that altar that will satisfy you, that will fill those places in your heart, that will satisfy them. And that is what they desperately long for.
And you will be his witness to all the nations. But before that can happen, you have to bring your hunger to the Lord. Lord, here are these places where I need you.
Here’s the places where I’ve been striving and struggling to feed myself. Where I’ve been working so hard, and nothing’s been changing. Lord, can you be with me here? Can you make me whole? And the answer is yes, he can.
Go to confession. Repent. Turn away from your sins.
Turn back to him. And receive communion well. To the degree that we take down the obstacles in our heart is the degree that we will receive the love of the Lord when we receive him in the Eucharist.
That it can be profoundly fruitful if it hasn’t been already. With that open heart, God, I want to be different. I choose you.
Instead of choosing my own way, I choose you, Lord. Come be with me. Fill my heart.
Give me that satisfaction that I’ve been longing for. Because I know you can.