“Grab life by the horns” is advice meant to encourage those who find life boring or routine to look for adventure and excitement. And that’s fine! Most everyone enjoys a little of that from time to time.
However, the pursuit of adventure and excitement can also distract us from dealing with life’s more important matters; it can side-track us from seeking to feed our deepest hungers. An exclusive diet of adventure and excitement will leave us always hungry for the next thrill, or the bigger rush. Over time, we’ll find ourselves discouraged, even bored (again)! We’ll be “hungry for more,” because we’ve been feeding ourselves with that which never truly satisfies. Thrills, at the end of the day, are mostly empty calories.
Only Jesus can satisfy life’s deepest hungers. “I am the bread of life,” he exclaimed in today’s gospel, “whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.” Jesus is talking, of course, about the gift he makes of himself in the Eucharist.
So- can we grab life by the horns? Sure…as long as we receive life from the Host.
Readings for today’s Mass: http://www.usccb.org/nab/051111.shtml
Photo credit: Kerry111 via Creative Commons