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I was raised in Kansas but attended a seminary college in distant Ohio.
One weekend, a schoolmate who lived nearby invited me to visit his home.
Upon arrival that Friday evening, he asked what time I would like to eat.
I said, “Whatever time your mom is serving supper.”
He said, “My mom doesn’t cook.”
I asked, “Your mom doesn’t cook on Friday evenings?”
“No,” he said. “My mom doesn’t cook at all.”
He might as well have said, “My mom is a space alien.”
The notion was one that I had never considered.
No judgment. I did not inquire into why neither she nor anyone else cooked in the home.
Startling as it was, it was just another “You’re not in Kansas anymore” moment.
Though we were allowed soup and sandwiches in front of the TV when Lassie was on, my family ate its other 20 meals a week at the table.
Making that happen was a family affair of food preparation and clean-up.
My father was a grocer, who liked to nap after lunch before returning to work.
At the end of each lunch, he would pick up the ketchup or mustard, take it to the fridge and keep moving.
In exchange, mom slept in while dad made us a full breakfast every morning.
Uninterrupted family meals have gone the way of Lassie, but we should consider what we have lost, why the Gospel sees it as important and find a way to compensate.
Abraham and Sarah entertained angels because their culture demanded that strangers be received as guests.
It is over a meal that Abraham was told that Sarah, despite her age, would bear him a son.
On behalf of the world’s many Martha’s, let us admit that Mary would not have been sitting at the Lord’s feet if he had not come for the dinner, which her sister had made possible.
The point is that meals are meant to draw us away from our activities, to draw us together and to give us time to take in each other as we take nourishment.
Meals are when we can talk and, even more important, listen to what is happening in the lives of others.
At table, even those who never stop talking have to give the rest of us a chance to speak unless they intend to starve.
The Mass is a meal.
Though, physically, we eat very little, it nonetheless draws us away from our activities, draws us together and gives us time to take in each other as we receive the Lord’s nourishment. Continue reading
Image: Wikipedia Creative Commons
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