Food for the heart

I love those family celebrations where we sit about a great table laden with food. We laugh and tease, recall embarrassing stories and delight in re-establishing contact with our past and catching up on the new. As we get older, we love to hear about how our nephews and nieces are growing up and facing the world. The details of missed weddings, anniversaries and parties are shared and in the end we sit around with each other doing our best to remember the greatest hits of 1975.

We all enjoy companionship. The word itself means ‘breaking bread together.’ Being present to each other at a meal is an intimate invitation. It is an invitation to listen and to be heard, to share in something so fundamental as food.

It is, therefore, not surprising to find that in religious traditions throughout the world, food as offerings, food as a meal, food as a link to the divine, food as appeasement, or food as decoration, makes it way into the living liturgies and celebrations of those communities. There is the Jewish Passover, the Christian Eucharist – in Islam ‘halal’ foods are regulated, Hinduism and Buddhism avoid foods that may have caused pain to animals during manufacture. Through each of these traditions, food becomes a part of the religious culture.

It is equally unsurprising that Jesus, when speaking to the 5000 was concerned not just for their physical need for sustenance, but for their spiritual sustenance. When the disciples suggest that Jesus send the crowd away to buy food from the village, Jesus says, “There is no need for them to go: give them something to eat yourselves.” Fives loaves and two fish are presented to Jesus, he raises his eyes, says a blessing, breaks the loaves, hands them to his disciples. All are fed, with much remaining. While story says much about the mission of the Church, it also speaks clearly about the relationship between Jesus and his followers through the act of sharing food. The food is for both body and soul. They leave that quiet place nourished, full and ready for the world that awaits them in their work and play.

So too in those moments in our homes, the food that is passed from plate to plate, is also the food that nourishes the heart and souls of those you share it with. Take time this weekend to share a meal with family and friends. Feel free too, to join us at the Table of the Lord.