Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness (Matt. 5:6)

‘Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness’ (Matt. 5:6). He becomes as one who hungers and thirsts for all righteousness, that is, both for bodily virtue and for the moral virtue of the soul.

He who has not tasted something, says Basil the Great, does not know what he is missing; but once he has tasted it, he is filled with longing. Thus he who has tasted the sweetness of the commandments, and realizes that they lead him gradually towards the imitation of Christ, longs to acquire them all, with the result that he often disdains even death for their sake.

Glimpsing the mysteries of God hidden in the Holy Scriptures, he thirsts to grasp them fully; and the more knowledge he gains, the more he thirsts, burning as though drinking flames.

And because the Divine cannot be grasped fully by anyone, he continues to thirst for ever.


St. Peter of Damaskos