The Eucharistic meal in which we get to participate is as real as the meals we spend so much of our lives planning and preparing for, writes Clare Lazzuri. Shouldn’t our Sunday routine reflect its importance? (Garvan Yeung photo)
We’ve been having a hot, hot summer. Heat warnings. High humidity. The kind of heat
where you have to decide in the morning whether or not it’s even worth taking a
shower.
The heat has got me thinking a lot about food, more specifically how to feed the family while generating as little heat as possible. What’s the big deal, you say? It’s summer, just use the barbecue, you say? In theory this is a fine solution. In practice, not so easy. Our secondhand barbecue is rather temperamental and after I completely scorched, beyond recognition, two packs of sausages in early summer, the barbecue and I have parted ways.
Sometimes my husband is home in time to do the grilling, but if not I have pulled out as many slow-cooker and non-cook recipes as I can muster. What’s that saying? Necessity is the mother of invention? Indeed, we have had more slow-cooked meat slapped on wraps this summer than ever before. Call it pulled pork, pull-apart chicken, shredded beef – bellies are being filled. (My two favourite recipes are “slow cooked barbecue beef sandwiches” at tasteofhome.com and “da beef Italian pot roast sandwiches” at foodnetwork.com).
Sometimes I feel like all I do is think about food and plan meals. I know I’m not alone in this. When you have kids, they need to eat, at regular intervals, every day. This is not news. As humans we need to feed our bodies. We can’t survive without food. Jesus tells us the same thing about the food he offers us for our souls.
Throughout the month of August, we will hear in the Sunday Gospels about the way Christ wants to feed us. For five Sundays in a row, the Church offers us passages from the sixth chapter of the Gospel of St. John. It started with the miracle of the loaves and fishes on the last Sunday of July and continues with the “Bread of Life Discourse,” followed by Jesus giving us the “words of Eternal Life.” Lastly, we see the resulting departure of many disciples who find his teachings “too hard.”
These Gospel reading are so crucial to our faith lives. If our bodies are in need of constant nourishment with food, our souls are surely in need of constant nourishment with spiritual food. God gives us the Eucharist, which is both physical and spiritual food, because we are both physical and spiritual beings. He feeds the whole person. It occurred to me recently, if I am racking my brain on ways to get my children’s bodies fed, am I spending as much time thinking about how to feed their souls?
On a recent Sunday, when some of us had slept a little late, we were pushing the limits for eating breakfast in time for the required one-hour fast before receiving Communion. Mass was at 11 so we cut off the food and drink at 10:30. Little did we know that our regular priest was called away and the priest who filled in opted not to give a homily since he was not prepared. So there I was, one eye on the altar, one eye on the time in hopes Communion would be after 10:30 (it was, just).
I didn’t like the feeling I was left with that Sunday – first because I was distracted watching the time, and second, because I realized I hadn’t built up my hunger for Jesus. I also didn’t like the fact that I had set the example for my kids of pushing the limits when it comes to Mass, as if we were going to a movie or play, instead of the most important, most nourishing, most life-sustaining event of our week.
It’s not okay to treat Sunday Mass like it is anything less. How many times do we rush to Mass? How often do we take the time to read the upcoming Sunday Gospel to prepare our hearts? Are we giving our kids the message that the Mass is not only a priority in our lives, but it is essential, just like the food we provide for them daily?
In this series of Gospel readings this month, Jesus couldn’t be any clearer: “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you … For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink” (Jn 6:53, 55).
This Eucharistic meal in which we get to participate is the real meal that will sustain our lives. Our Lord’s words are shocking, and they should be. They require a response in us every time we approach that holy table. If am able to spend time searching the Internet, looking for recipes and new ways to cook supper, surely I can spend the same amount of time preparing my soul to receive its most essential food.
I can stress about what’s for dinner and how to serve a decent meal without turning on the oven, but the bottom line is that my kids have complete trust that they will be fed when meal time rolls around. Do we have that kind of trust in Jesus Christ? Do we act according to the belief that he is the Bread of Life?
When it comes to Sunday Mass, Jesus has done all the meal prep for us. There is nothing we can do to add to the fullness of the Eucharist. Jesus has already given his precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity to be able to offer this meal to all who believe in him. Are we hungry? Are we ready for this meal? Can we echo Simon Peter’s words, which we will hear on the last Sunday of August: “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God”?
Lazzuri, a mother of six, writes from her home in Nova Scotia.