Reflection from Deacon Russ for Solemnity of Body and Blood of Christ

If your family is like ours once was, you have gotten to the point where, if you want to have everyone together for a meal, you have to schedule family dinner in advance. You look at work schedules, soccer and baseball schedules, date nights, school activities, Church meetings, and everything else that keeps us so busy – and you discover that no one has anything scheduled next Thursday! That’s when we schedule family dinner and put that on the calendar along with everything else. And once family dinner is scheduled, everyone needs to keep themselves available.

Why is family dinner so important? I recently read an article about a family in Cleveland. Three of their seven children are priests. “A lot of vocations were formed around our dinner table,” writes one of the priests. “We always ate as a family; Mom and Dad made it a priority. We saw their love and respect and made the connection with what we did at the dinner table and what happens at the altar.” You may not end up with priests in your family, but family dinner is important because it’s a time for everyone in the family to be together, to give thanks for what we have and who we are. Eating together is more than just re-fueling our bodies. When we feast, even on simple food, with those we love, somehow we become closer, part of one another. Each family dinner is, in a sense, a celebration of who we are to one another.

Meals are also privileged places for meeting God. At meals, life and death intersect. God made us so we are hungry each day. If we don’t eat, we die. We hunger and thirst and we are satisfied. The food we eat is a gift from God – a gift that comes from earth and sun and rain and human labor. It is not something we can create by ourselves. The plants and animals we eat were once alive, but they are now dead so that we may live. It is through meals – the family dinner, the special anniversary meal by candlelight, the team dinner before the game - that we experience God, renew life and give new life to one another!

Today’s feast is about a meal – food and drink that Jesus himself shares with us and leaves for us to share with one another. Moses reminded the Israelites that it was not by manna alone that one lives but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Jesus reminds us that he “is the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” Again, the sign of God’s covenant with us. Jesus invites us to the family dinner of faith – this is my Body - eat this bread. Unlike any other meal, the food we share in the Eucharist does not become us; rather, we become the food. Where is the Body of Christ, where is the Blood of Christ in the world today if not in us? We must offer ourselves as saving bread for one another. Perhaps that’s why those of us who cannot celebrate this sacrament because of the virus are so longing for it. We used to come here each week for our family dinner . . . to nourish our faith and then to nourish one another. Now our approach is a little different until we can come back to the Eucharistic Table.

It’s easy to forget how important this all is; it’s easy to take the Eucharist and other life-giving meals for granted. In J.D. Salinger’s book, Frannie and Zooey, there is a powerful scene in which Frannie comes home from college a nervous wreck. In college, she was trying to explore the depths of religious mysticism, and the whole experience left her very tense. Bessie, her mother, is concerned and shows that concern by bringing Frannie a cup of chicken soup. Even though Frannie knows her mother is trying to be comforting to her, the offer of the chicken soup annoys her and she lashes out at her mother. Zooey, Frannie’s brother, comforts her and tells her that her approach to religion is all wrong. He tells her that, if it’s the religious life she wants, she’s missing out on every single religious action that’s going on in their house. He says, “You don’t have sense enough to drink when someone brings you a cup of consecrated chicken soup, which is the only kind of chicken soup that Mom ever brings to anybody.”

That’s why family dinner at home is so important and why there needs to be a day when nothing gets in the way of sharing that meal together. Because the food put on the table is consecrated, and when we don’t take that meal seriously – or miss it - we miss what life and family is all about. And that’s why our family meal around the altar is so important. Because the bread and wine are consecrated, and when we approach the table too casually, we miss the full impact of God’s covenant with us. Don’t let that happen!

If you have a brief faith reflection on today’s reading that you would like to share, please send it to me at deaconruss@holyspiritunoh.org.