We mark some of the most memorable moments of our lives by gathering around a table and sharing a meal. The centerpiece of graduations, weddings, and family reunions, is a meal shared between those closest to us. We gather and pray, and then we share our food with one another, as we celebrate our lives together. Meals also mark the beginnings and end of stages in our life: births, retirements, and funerals. In this Sunday’s Gospel Mark recalls a meal begun in remembrance of the Passover into freedom from slavery and continued until this day as the memorial of the new covenant and the saving act of Jesus that has freed us from sin and death forever.
This memorial meal reminds us that we are all special children of God, destined for the kingdom. On the night Jesus began his departure from this world he passed on the role of servant-leader to each and every one of us. He demonstrated this in the washing of feet and in the serving of the meal. In our baptism we are ordained as priest, prophet, and king for service to the world. These are not roles of power that we may lord it over others, rather we are servants to the kingdom, called to bring healing and to preach the good news with love so that all can reign with the Father.
This is a timeless celebration, because with God all time is now, and now contains all time. The bread and wine we share contains the totality of Christ for all time: past, present, and future. Unlike regular food, which we eat and pass on, this meal continues to fill and satisfy, as we become the Body and Blood of Christ for the world. A hungry world that needs this ‘real presence’ as the hope of a people not orphaned, but adopted by God for all time. As we accept this ‘real presence,’ we are called to show up and to be available to a world in need of good news and healing – the good news of a healing carried out by our presence to everyone regardless of station or status.
This meal fortifies and strengthens us so that we can labor in the vineyard to bring about a harvest of new wine and care for fields of wheat without the judgment of weeds. We are ministers, not messiahs. We are laborers in fields not planted by us, and we bring in grapes from vines watered from above. Though we have an important role to play in our lives, we are part of a plan that is beyond our comprehension. A plan ordained by a God beyond our naming. We are only to love as we have been loved, forgive as we have been forgiven. We are to walk together, not apart, or above, or below. We are to see in each other the reflection of our very best self, the image and likeness of our Creator. We are to call forth that image and likeness in each encounter.
We do this in remembrance of the Son who has given us everything he received from the Father so that we, in turn, can share his loving presence with the entire world.
You must be logged in to post a comment.