Lent 1 year C.
Sermon prepared by Canon J.P. Walker St. Mary's Parish, Crumlin Road, Belfast.

What are the things we do actually live by? Let us take a walk through our local town and see what it has to tell us about the things by which people live. The first thing to catch our eye is the shops. What story do the shop windows tell? There are things to eat and things to wear, things for work and things for leisure, things for the home and things for travel. To help improve your image there are beauticians and hairdressing salons and leisure centres for relaxation. Hotels, restaurants and fast food outlets cater for the hungry body. What a variety to choose from, and all shouting the one thing at us: "Man lives by bread."

That does not contradict what Jesus said. We do live by bread. We cannot live without it. Notice what Jesus did say: "Man does not live by bread alone." Even the shops support his words. Have another look at the shop window and you will see papers, books and glossy magazines. In another there are paintings and sketches. While books and pictures are not bread for the body, they are food for the soul. In fact, the shops are saying to us, "Man lives by bread, but not by bread alone."

In cities and in larger towns the cinema is becoming popular once again despite having mini-cinemas in our homes. Why, you may ask, do people still queue up to see pictures on screen? Simply, because they want to be amused, some will say. Is it not because they have a craving for beauty? While this may not be the only reason, an important feature of the picture is that it appeals to our sense of beauty. This is another thing by which we live. Man does not live by bread alone, he lives by beauty.

A visit to the public library introduces us to books on every conceivable subject. "Of the making of books there is no end." Why are they there? They point to another demand - the demand for truth. Every library, every school, every college is a witness to our thirst for reality. Man does not live by bread alone, he lives by truth.

In our walk around town we cannot fail to see the police station and courthouse and perhaps a former jail, representing the whole legal system. What is the meaning of it all? The distinction we feel between right and wrong. This is another deep human need, the need for the good. In every heart the need for what Jesus calls " a hunger for righteousness." Man does not live by bread alone, he lives by goodness.

The buildings of a town are mainly houses. Enter any one of them large or small. It is the home that concerns us, not the house. What is it that makes the home? Someone has said: "Home is where mother is, " and mother stands for love. There is no real home without love. Love is another essential human need. Man does not live by bread alone, he lives by love.

We began by taking a walk around the local town to see what it is that people live by. We have seen the shops, cinemas, hotels, the public library, the police station, the leisure facilities and the home. What have they to tell us? Just this, that though we live by bread, we do not live by bread alone. They have pointed us to certain unseen things- things we do not eat or wear, - beauty, truth, goodness, love. These are not all the things we ought to seek.

So let us pay one more visit in the town. Enter a church, any church will do. Whatever our differences, we are one in the things that are vital. What does the Church stand for? Religion. What is religion? Many think of religion as a thing set apart, an interest quite different from other interests in life. But no so. We have seen things that people live by, certain spiritual things like beauty, truth, goodness and love, and that with out these things a real person cannot exist. For the Christian, God is the being in whom beauty and truth, goodness and love have their home, and from whom they flow out into the world. Every expression of the true and the beautiful, the good and the loving, is a reflection of God.

We do not live by bread alone. We cannot. Every day we are living on other food. Because we are the children of God we need spiritual food - the words that come from the mouth of God. Our spiritual hunger drives us to seek those words everywhere. But our spiritual food may be of poor quality. We need the best food. Only God himself in Jesus Christ can satisfy us. God be praised for the bread without which no earthly existence is possible, but most of all for the beauty and truth, the goodness and love revealed in his Son, Jesus Christ. By these things we live eternally.