Food For The Journey
Food. When the Bible teaches important lessons, it starts talking about food. Lesson of life, and death, become real in food.
When Adam and Eve betray God, they seal their rebellion by eating. When He brings his people out of slavery, God gives them manna in the desert. Jesus fed his followers with loves and fishes. God gave Himself to His disciples by giving them the bread that is Jesus to eat at the Last Supper. Of course, Jesus continues to give Himself to us to eat at Mass in the reception of the Eucharist.
Life is a journey with a starting point and a definite end. We must feed our bodies to continue our journey in this world. And we must feed our souls to be ready for the goal of Heaven. However, after we die there will be no need to feed the body or the soul. This food that is Jesus prepares us for an eternal life of perfect happiness.
Do not let yourself fail to eat the food that lasts forever!
written by Laura Weston, widow of Deacon Michael
IF YOU LIKE, READ ALONG WHILE YOU ARE LISTENING:
The readings today, I really like. And the thing is, we see in Isaiah about the prophecy of what's going to be happening, the original prophesy of Isaiah related to the return of the people of Israel to Israel from the Babylonian captivity, and what a wonder it's going to be. And with the coming of Christ, remember on the road to Emmaus Jesus talked to the two disciples and explained how everything in the Old Testament related to Him.
Well, when you start reading the Old Testament in the context of Christ, you stop at the book of the prophet Isaiah, and you go, "Wow! This all relates to Christ, and it fits so well." And these prophesies that we have out of Isaiah, that we have today, and we have all through the season of Advent, so much are reflective of what it is that God brought to the world through His Son.
What God brought to the world is a transformation of the world through the person of Jesus Christ. It changed the perspective of the world entirely both in those times, and in our times.
If you are a follower of Christ, your perspective on the world is different. So we see in Isaiah: "on the mountain, the Lord of Hosts will provide for all peoples a feast of rich food and choice wines." We see in other places that He’s talking about taking care of the very people that Jesus was healing. That was going to be a sign. And then we're going to say, "Behold our God, to whom we look to save us." "This is the Lord for whom we looked. Let us rejoice and be glad that He has saved us." This is our response to it.
In the gospel reading I really, on a personal level, find a great deal of hope. In the gospel that we say, we see first "the crowds were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the deformed made whole, the lame walking, the blind able to see, and they glorified the God of Israel." That is a fulfillment of a prophecy found in Isaiah.
But it also is very much of a change on the perspective of the world that we are to have as a follower of Christ. A perspective that, again, in this period of reviewing and examining ourselves in relationship with God and our fellow man, is a perspective that we are to have. And this is a perspective, if you look at historical documents, the perspective of the world to treating the people that we see described right here has changed radically.
Because one of the things that they did is that when we are talking about the deformed, the lame, the blind: all of those people were outcasts. In addition to suffering the infirmity, they were perceived as being "lesser." And in fact, with many diseases, they were unclean.
Because if you are living in a world where bad things happen to bad people, a person who is suffering from something that is wrong, automatically is wrong in and of himself or herself. And that wrong is that they are a sinner and not a follower of God and therefore there is something suspect about them that you need to keep away from yourself. Because if they're bad, their badness might rub off on you, and you will become bad, and you, too, will be in the situation of being an outcast.
Now, with contagious diseases, that works. But that is a perspective of the world. The perspective of Jesus Christ is, "No, these are your fellow humans. These are your fellow creations of God. These are the people for whom I died. As much as I died on the cross for you, I died for them. And you are to embrace them and to take care of them.
Now the second part of the reading where He is feeding the multitude, He says, "My heart is moved with pity for the crowd." They didn't have food. Now we see this both very much in a real sense of a miracle that is occurring, but we see this as a Eucharistic reading because He is blessing the food. He is distributing the food. He is doing all of these things and it brings to mind the celebration of the Eucharist.
It brings to mind Communion, why we come here every morning without a priest, to do what? Not listen to me talk. Not listen to trying to figure out a brand new way of doing a Communion service. We come for Christ.
And that we, through Christ, are in that crowd. We receive the food that is necessary for our life. That is why, frankly, we're all crazy.
Look at the world. How many people do you know outside of this group, are going to get up extra early in the morning before work, or if they are retired, get out of bed they could stay in bed as long as they want. They come here, and what do they receive? Food.
And how many of us, and I suspect all of us, when we are not able to come, feel this hunger, this need? The day is not right without receiving the Body of Christ. It's just not correct.
And so, that is a transformative effect of Christ that we are looking for with His coming. His coming at Christmas. His coming in our lives when we die. And the coming for the final time. It is the promise of that food. And He has given us the promise and given us the glimpse of Heaven. We receive a glimpse of Heaven right here. Because when we receive the body of Christ, we are receiving the Heavenly food.
So these gifts that we are looking forward to in Advent, why we are preparing ourselves for the celebration of His birth, is the transformative effect of bringing to us salvation, of changing the way that we perceive the world, and deal with the world, and ultimately the enormous change that comes both to the world by making it available, but to each and every one of us individually, to be fed with the Heavenly Food.
Not the food of manna that came down on the desert in the early morning in the Sinai, during the exodus, that's not the heavenly food that we receive from Christ. We receive from Christ His Body and Blood. And that's why, in my opinion, you and I truly are the six thirty crazies only in the sense that we are crazy enough to do what is necessary to start the day with the heavenly food. And if that is crazy, which it is, we have to admit, from the perspective of the world, it is crazy, I am more than happy to be crazy. If I miss a weekday and not receive the Body and Blood of Christ, the Body of Christ through Communion, it's just not right.
And that's what a wonderful gift Our Lord Jesus Christ and His Holy Catholic Church give us, the opportunity to receive His Body every morning.
December 5, 2018 2