Father Timothy MarcoeFood. It’s one of the most important things in life. True, we need food just to survive. But, it’s so much more than that. Think of all the ways and occasions food is a part of our lives. For example, when we gather as family for holidays, there’s food. Or, when we gathered yesterday evening for our parish picnic – so much delicious food! When we celebrate sacraments, like Baptism, First Holy Communion, and the like, afterwards there’s the reception, with all types of food. Several years ago, my family had our old silent home movies from the movie camera converted to DVD. And what were we doing in just about every single clip? Eating – birthdays, weddings, graduations. Food is a means of gathering us together as one.
One example related to food really stands out in my mind – and I’m sorry if I’m making you hungry. Several years ago, Bishop Rhoades at the time sent me down to Cuernavaca, Mexico, to study Spanish with other seminarians. Now, I like Mexican food – a lot – but after two months, I was really starting to crave a peanut butter sandwich. So, I asked the family I was living with where I could find some peanut butter. They said I’d have no problem finding it at the supermarket. But as I soon discovered, while we might have shelf after shelf of types of peanut butter, this giant supermarket (the Carréfour) had just a couple of jars. I was really bummed.
You know, there’s something about food that reminds us of home. And such is the case in our first reading today. Here the Prophet Isaiah is speaking to his fellow Israelites, who were enslaved in captivity by the Babylonians – they were exiled from their homeland. And so, speaking on behalf of God, Isaiah promises his people that they would return to the land of Israel. Interesting to note, he speaks of this in terms of food – using words like, “water,” “grain,” “wine,” “milk”. Do you remember when God promised Abraham that he would inherit a land flowing with milk and honey? And so, God promises that they will one day return to their native land.
Also in the Gospel, Jesus uses the language of food to teach God’s people. In the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, Jesus reveals to the immense crowd that He can nourish them by working a divine miracle. Now, He did this, not because He wanted to impress them with His power; rather, He wanted to prepare them for an even greater miracle to come – the Eucharist.
In fact, the night before He suffered, Jesus gathered with His disciples in the Upper Room to celebrate the Last Supper. There, He took bread and wine, and after giving thanks to His Father, He in turn gave it to His disciples declaring to them that this truly was His Body and Blood. And He did this the very day before He suffered and died on the cross, when He definitively offered up His Body and shed His Blood for the forgiveness of our sins. In this, Jesus wanted to establish a sacred meal, in which each time it was celebrated, His sacrifice of Calvary – offered once for all – would be the means by which we could be intimately united with Him and by which He would unite us together as one as His Body. And since “we are what we eat”, we become that which we are – the Church, the Body of Christ – by consuming the very Body and Blood of our Savior.
But, as I said, food has such a powerful way of connecting us with home as well. And so, in the Eucharist Jesus nourishes us with the spiritual food that doesn’t merely fill our stomachs, but it nourishes the depths of our soul – for our true and lasting homeland is not this world. Rather, it’s heaven.
My brothers and sisters, this world is passing away. And as the Book of Revelation says, Jesus is reserving for us a seat at the table of the heavenly Wedding Banquet of the Lamb. And so, as we celebrate together this Eucharist, we renew our focus on really living now so as to one day live in the glory of heaven, where we will be nourished by the living God for all eternity. God bless you.
(Father Marcoe is the pastor of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Gettysburg.)
By Father Timothy Marcoe, Special to The Witness
