What are you looking for? (Part 2)

The Church, in her maternal care and ancient wisdom, is deeply aware of this fundamental desire for God within the human heart. In fact, it is the very first truth she teaches in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. After the prologue, in which she introduces the structure and purpose of the Catechism, she begins with this profound statement: “The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God, and God never ceases to draw man to himself.”^[1]

Before teaching about morality, the sacraments, or prayer, the Church first proclaims that every human person possesses an innate desire for God, because we have been created by Him and for Him. By beginning here, the Church makes something essential clear: if we do not understand this foundational truth about our humanity—if we do not recognize and embrace this desire for God within us—then the rest of her teaching will not make sense. It may appear cold, rigid, or merely a set of rules meant to appease an angry or self-centered God. But this is far from the truth.

When a person truly desires God, where do they go in this life to have that desire satisfied? While it is true that the desire for God can never be fully satisfied in this life, we can encounter Him deeply through personal prayer and by embracing His will within our vocation. Yet this desire reaches its highest fulfillment on earth in the Eucharist.

When someone truly desires God and understands who the Eucharist is, it becomes unthinkable to willingly skip Mass. Such a person runs to Mass, because it is there, and only there, that we receive the Eucharist: the very Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ. In this life, we cannot draw any closer to God than in the Eucharist.

Whenever people tell me they are attending Mass more regularly, their main reason is usually the same: they are experiencing a greater desire for God in their lives. Sometimes a tragedy or difficulty has awakened this longing, as suffering often makes us more aware of our need for Him.

At other times, it may simply be that God’s grace has opened their hearts and minds, stirring within them a deeper hunger for His presence. Whatever the details of their story, where do they go? To the Eucharist. The desire for God helps us understand more deeply the Church’s teaching and leads us into its beauty and mystery. For this reason, the Church begins the Catechism by speaking about this fundamental desire for God that exists within every human heart.

This truth is not only the first thing the Church teaches us in the Catechism; it is also the first thing Jesus teaches His disciples in the Gospel.

In the Gospel of John (Jn 1:35–42), shortly after John the Baptist sees Jesus and proclaims, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29), we are told that on the next day he again sees Jesus and repeats the proclamation: “Behold, the Lamb of God” (John 1:36).

Immediately, two of John the Baptist’s disciples leave him and begin to follow Jesus. When Jesus notices them following Him, He turns and asks, “What do you seek?” (John 1:38). In the New American Bible, Jesus’ question is translated, “What are you looking for?” In essence, Jesus is asking these disciples, and us, “What do you desire?”

When Jesus speaks about John the Baptist in the Gospel of Matthew, He does so with the highest regard: “Among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist” (Matthew 11:11). Yet despite John’s holiness and greatness, he was not enough for those two disciples. Why? Because John the Baptist is not God. As extraordinary as it must have been to stand in John’s presence, to learn from him and observe such a holy man up close, it was still not enough. John the Baptist could not satisfy the restlessness of the human heart, which by its very nature longs for God.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church expresses this truth clearly in its opening paragraph: “Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for.” In short, holy people are not enough. Even holy things are not enough. Nor is this world, in all its beauty, enough. Only God is enough. As the Psalmist proclaims: “For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken” (Psalm 62:5–6).

When Jesus asks His disciples—and each of us—“What do you seek?” (cf. Gospel of John 1:38), He is gently knocking at the door of our hearts, stirring within us the deepest desire we carry: the desire for God. I imagine Him posing the question with a quiet smile, perhaps even a twinkle in His eye, because He already knows the answer. He knows that He Himself is what we are searching for.

Whether the disciples, or we, fully realize it, it is ultimately Him we seek. The difficulty, as the monk Fr. Joseph once told a young convert, is that “most people are not aware of it yet.” We forget. We look elsewhere, toward achievements, possessions, relationships, or recognition, to satisfy a longing that none of these can fully meet. We chase finite answers to what is, at its core, an infinite desire.

Much of our frustration in life arises from this mismatch. We attempt to fill an eternal hunger with temporary things. Yet the longing remains, quietly persistent, drawing us back to the One who first placed it within us. Only in God do we find the fulfillment of the desire that shapes every other desire, the rest for which our hearts were made.

Despite the gentleness with which Jesus asks this question, there is also a seriousness, a real demand, within it. What is that demand? If it is truly Jesus whom we are seeking, as I and the Church profess, then we must desire Him, love Him, and seek Him above all else. The Lord Jesus is not an ordinary person, nor merely a rabbi or teacher. He is not a passing trend meant to spark our curiosity for a season or to appear briefly in our algorithm. He is God, the One for whom we were made, the One our hearts long for, the One in whom the deepest desire within us finds its fulfillment.

At World Youth Day in 2000, Pope John Paul II spoke these words to the youth gathered there: “It is Jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness… He is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is He who provokes you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise.” Although he addressed young people on that occasion, his words speak to every person, of every culture and every age.

“What do you seek?” Jesus asks. In the end, there is only one true answer: You, Lord. It is You, Jesus, whom I seek.

^[1] Catechism of the Catholic Church, #27.