What Feeds You Meaning?

Several years ago, a Jewish psychologist imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps, made a profound observation that would later revolutionize our understanding of human suffering. He noticed that some prisoners died more quickly than others—not due to physical fitness, but for mysterious psychological reasons.

One dawn, Frankl witnessed a group of men smoking their last cigarettes. Within days, they began dying. This was extraordinary because cigarettes were precious commodities in the camps, often traded for days’ worth of bread and water. These men weren’t just smoking—they were giving up on life itself.

This observation led the psychologist to develop what became known as logotherapy, built on a fundamental insight: “Man is not destroyed by suffering, but by suffering without meaning.”

The Modern Search for Meaning

Today, we find ourselves in a peculiar paradox. In an age of unprecedented abundance, we are spiritually starved. We’re bombarded with choices, comforts, and information, yet we feel increasingly lost, anxious, and unanchored. We turn instinctively to screens and substances, productivity books and self-help guides, chasing not just happiness but meaning—often coming up empty.

In many ways, people today are smoking their last cigarettes because they cannot find meaning in their lives.

Consider this thought experiment: Imagine scientists discovered a virus with a 100% mortality rate that would destroy all humanity. Through a genetic miracle, you alone carry the cure. However, extracting it would require eight hours of excruciating suffering culminating in your death. But your sacrifice would save your children, family, and all future generations. Would you do it?

Most would answer yes without hesitation. When suffering has meaning, we can endure even the unendurable.

Answer to Our Deepest Hunger

In today’s Gospel, we see Jesus feeding the multitudes with literal bread that satisfies physical hunger. But this miracle points to something deeper—Christ feeds us with meaning. The world tells us to “find our passion” and “follow our dreams,” as if meaning were a treasure hunt where we must discover our purpose through endless self-exploration and achievement.

But this approach leaves us perpetually searching, always wondering if we’ve chosen the right path, constantly measuring our worth against our accomplishments. Unlike our modern understanding that meaning is something we must find and pursue, Christ reveals that meaning is fundamentally relational. He doesn’t ask us to manufacture meaning through our efforts or discover it through our talents—He simply offers Himself as the source of all meaning.

“I am the way, the truth, and the life,” Jesus declares. “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” Meaning, in our faith, is not conceptual but relational—found in relationship with the One who gives meaning.

The Greatest Treasure: His Body and Blood

To emphasize this profound truth, Christ left us His greatest treasure—His very Body and Blood in the Eucharist. “Take this and eat. This is my body. Drink my blood.”

Some dismiss the Eucharist as mere symbolism, believing that when Jesus said “This is my body, this is my blood,” He didn’t truly mean it. But what did the earliest Christians understand about these words?

We need look no further than Ignatius of Antioch, a bishop who was a direct disciple of John the Evangelist—the beloved disciple who reclined on Christ’s chest and heard His heartbeat, who witnessed the pierced heart at the foot of the cross.

Around 90 AD, barely two generations after Christ, Ignatius wrote these striking words:

Some people abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer because they do not believe that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ—the same flesh which suffered for our sins and which the Father in His goodness raised up again.

For Ignatius, to deny the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist was to deny Christianity itself. The Eucharist is the very person of Christ in His flesh—the flesh crucified and risen, given to us in love.

When we receive Him, we begin to discover meaning in every aspect of our lives.

Finding Meaning in Everything

Think of those parts of your life that seem meaningless—struggles in marriage, challenges with children, physical or mental health issues, character weaknesses, persistent sins. If meaning is relational and revealed in the One who called Himself the way, the truth, and the life, then He can give meaning to every part of your existence.

Everything can be transformed by the merciful heart of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Practical Ways to Grow in Eucharistic Life

1. Embrace Post-Communion Prayer

When you receive communion and respond “Amen,” you enter into union with Love Incarnate. Those precious minutes after communion are the most sacred of your entire week where you enter into the greatest intimacy with your Lord, as St. Teresa of Avila reminds us.

In that moment, pray. Listen to your Lord. Talk to Him. Sing to Him. Bring Him your struggles, your shadows, and your lights. Dare to believe that you are in true communion with the Word Incarnate.

2. Practice Eucharistic Adoration

Consider spending a holy hour before the Blessed Sacrament, especially during difficult times. After challenging days at work or family problems, remember Christ’s invitation: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.”

3. Cultivate Eucharistic Thanksgiving

A modern saint offers this beautiful practice of thanksgiving that transforms how we see everything:

Get used to lifting your heart to God in acts of thanksgiving many times a day.

• Because He gives you this and that, thank Him.
• Because you have been despised, thank Him.
• Because you lack what you need or because you have it, thank Him.
• Because He made His mother so beautiful—His mother, who is also your mother—thank Him.
• Because He created the sun and the moon and this animal and that plant, thank Him.
• Because He made that man eloquent and you, He left tongue-tied, thank Him.
• Thank Him for everything, because everything is good. – St Josemaria

Living as Tabernacles of Grace

When we receive the Eucharist, we become living tabernacles of the Body and Blood of Christ. We carry Him into our workplaces, our families, our daily lives, knowing that we are one with Christ.

This is the meaning that transforms suffering into purpose, isolation into communion, and emptiness into fullness. In the Eucharist, Christ feeds our deepest hunger—not just for bread, but for meaning itself.

Let us thank the Lord for leaving us this beautiful treasure, the treasure of His Body and Blood, that gives meaning to our lives and grace to continue building His kingdom here on earth.

In communion with His love, St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles