Have you ever seen the movie “Groundhog’s Day”? It’s a comedy; the story of a man who wakes up every day to the same day and the exact same set of events in the exact same sequence. Well… welcome to “groundhog’s day” -- at first it appears that we are hearing the same Gospel that we heard last Sunday and the Sunday before that! So, we find ourselves over halfway through our five week journey of reflecting on the gift of the Eucharist.
In Jesus’ world, the people with whom you ate were just as important as what you ate. Dietary restrictions defined membership in the Hebrew camps and daily life. Not only was what or how you ate important, but who you sat down to dinner with -- you ate with family. You ate with people who embraced your religious laws and customs.
If you invited a stranger to your table, you were implicitly offering not only a meal but shelter, and possibly protection, and extended-family status, and once you did, it was more or less, in perpetuity. Sharing a meal with someone could be a powerful sign of relationships.
Yet in the Gospels, Jesus freely feeds and eats with a variety of sometimes rather “unsavory” people. His table was open to all who were hungry…much like the figure of Lady Wisdom found in the first reading. We hear Lady Wisdom calling out in the streets: Anybody hungry? Come and eat!
She sets her table in advance of a guest list. She anticipates multitudes, sight unseen. The only requirement is that her guests come wanting what she has prepared…which is wisdom and understanding.
Yet one of the most difficult realities of the Eucharist is “understanding” … because it is a mystery beyond our grasp. While some Christians say it is just a symbol of Jesus’ presence and love among us, Roman Catholics believe in the “real presence” of Christ in the Eucharist we share each time we gather around the table of the Lord. Just as Jesus proclaimed to his disciples.
As I mentioned last week, the Catholic author, Flannery O’Connor, wrote that the Eucharist “is the center of existence for me; all the rest of life is expendable.”
This profound statement of the centrality of the Eucharist in her life speaks to the importance that Jesus placed on it in today’s Gospel.
The meaning of the Eucharist refuses to be reduced to a mere statement of faith. The Eucharist is not an abstract idea. It is an experience of mystery that will always be beyond our struggle to articulate it.
As I have said before, the Eucharist is a raw and unmediated encounter with the very presence of Jesus Christ!
Just as it shocked the disciples, so too we should allow it to shock us…to wake us up to just how deeply and passionately we are loved by Jesus, who is willing to feed us with his very self that we might have eternal life.
If we are truly disciples of Jesus then we too are called to “feed” others…to respond to their hungers…not just for physical food…but to their hunger for justice, for peace, for respect of their human dignity! And we are able to do this precisely because of the indwelling of Jesus Christ within each one of us, which Jesus promises us in today’s Gospel!
At the end of our Eucharistic celebration, as Christ abides in me, how will this Divine indwelling impact my relationship with others?
Blessings,
Fr. Tim
In Jesus’ world, the people with whom you ate were just as important as what you ate. Dietary restrictions defined membership in the Hebrew camps and daily life. Not only was what or how you ate important, but who you sat down to dinner with -- you ate with family. You ate with people who embraced your religious laws and customs.
If you invited a stranger to your table, you were implicitly offering not only a meal but shelter, and possibly protection, and extended-family status, and once you did, it was more or less, in perpetuity. Sharing a meal with someone could be a powerful sign of relationships.
Yet in the Gospels, Jesus freely feeds and eats with a variety of sometimes rather “unsavory” people. His table was open to all who were hungry…much like the figure of Lady Wisdom found in the first reading. We hear Lady Wisdom calling out in the streets: Anybody hungry? Come and eat!
She sets her table in advance of a guest list. She anticipates multitudes, sight unseen. The only requirement is that her guests come wanting what she has prepared…which is wisdom and understanding.
Yet one of the most difficult realities of the Eucharist is “understanding” … because it is a mystery beyond our grasp. While some Christians say it is just a symbol of Jesus’ presence and love among us, Roman Catholics believe in the “real presence” of Christ in the Eucharist we share each time we gather around the table of the Lord. Just as Jesus proclaimed to his disciples.
As I mentioned last week, the Catholic author, Flannery O’Connor, wrote that the Eucharist “is the center of existence for me; all the rest of life is expendable.”
This profound statement of the centrality of the Eucharist in her life speaks to the importance that Jesus placed on it in today’s Gospel.
The meaning of the Eucharist refuses to be reduced to a mere statement of faith. The Eucharist is not an abstract idea. It is an experience of mystery that will always be beyond our struggle to articulate it.
As I have said before, the Eucharist is a raw and unmediated encounter with the very presence of Jesus Christ!
Just as it shocked the disciples, so too we should allow it to shock us…to wake us up to just how deeply and passionately we are loved by Jesus, who is willing to feed us with his very self that we might have eternal life.
If we are truly disciples of Jesus then we too are called to “feed” others…to respond to their hungers…not just for physical food…but to their hunger for justice, for peace, for respect of their human dignity! And we are able to do this precisely because of the indwelling of Jesus Christ within each one of us, which Jesus promises us in today’s Gospel!
At the end of our Eucharistic celebration, as Christ abides in me, how will this Divine indwelling impact my relationship with others?
Blessings,
Fr. Tim
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