Monday, June 16, 2014

A Menu for Life



Dear Friends,

We don’t have to be foodies to appreciate the meaning of food in our lives. Sure, there’s food for our bodies, but also food for our spirits, our minds, our hearts.

I played in a foursome with a Dutch man on a golf course in Florida one winter. If he hit a particularly good shot, he would say: “I am satisfied.” Occasionally, after an outstanding shot, the Dutchman was more expansive: “I am very satisfied.” Food for this man’s spirit of play!

Next weekend, the liturgical calendar marks The Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ,
what was, years ago called Corpus Christi. The Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday evening brings us together for the giving of the Eucharist by Jesus on the night before He died. That liturgy was the first part of the Triduum, three days when we were absorbed in the whole meaning of Jesus’ self-giving and His being raised up. Next weekend, we thank God once more and with renewed focus for this gift beyond all gifts. With Christ’s Body and Blood, we are daily nourished for our life’s journey, with its ups and downs, its victories and defeats, its delights and challenges, Recognizing the strength and confidence that comes though sharing in this sacred meal, we can say: “I am satisfied. I am very satisfied.”

But satisfaction is not all. For being one with Christ in this singularly remarkable way stirs up hungers in our hearts for the same sort of world reconciled to God that Jesus desired.

So here are some questions that invite you to make up a menu for your life going forward. Think beyond bodily food, and ask yourself:

            What do I have an appetite for?
            What do I want to taste again and again, or for the first time?
            What do I not want to stomach any longer?
            What can I contribute to for the health of the world?
            For what am I hungry to see? To hear? To witness?

On the mountain, before Jesus fed the multitudes, the disciples cam to Jesus with the fear that there was not enough  food among those gathered. Jesus said to them: "Feed them yourselves.”(Mark 6.37)

In what ways, with what resources are we called upon to feed the multitudes?
~Joan Sobala, SSJ