Happy are those called to the supper of the Lord
“Happy are those called to the supper of the Lord”: the assembly which celebrates the Eucharist is rooted in this invitation which God addresses us….
….the initiative belongs directly to Jesus Christ. He comes to meet his friends and take his place in their midst to reveal his resurrection and share his life with them in the Word and the breaking of the Bread, as he once did for the disciples at Emmaus (Cf. Luke 24: 13-25)
Jesus Christ: Broken Bread for a new World
Come, for everything is ready now.
Luke 14:17
Jesus said to them: “They need not go away”.
Matthew 14:16 (Feeding of the 5000)
I must be at you house today.
Luke 19:1-10 (Zacchaeus)
We shouldn’t seek the ideal community. It is a question of loving those whom God has set beside us today. They are signs of God. We might have chosen different people….But these are the ones God has given us, the ones he has chosen for us. It is with them that we are called to create unity and live a covenant.
Jean Vanier
Gather the folks
Break the bread
Tell the stories
It is almost commonplace to say with Gerard Manley Hopkins, that “the world is charged with the grandeur of God” But do we mean it? Do we live it?
What if we had a way of celebrating and lamenting;
…..a way of including our fighting and hating and our loving and meeting?
…..a way of bringing together our “superficiality, stupidity and insufficiency” and our capacity for “dedication, faithfulness unto death, and joy”;
What if we had a way of naming and offering our life (together with the whole community of creation) as a means of hope?
When Jesus broke bread he imagined such a possibility.
When Jesus offered the Kingdom or Reign of God, he was offering such a possibility.
When he broke bread and spoke of the Reign of God, he was offering an attractive, imaginative and alternative reality.
This week we begin a new series of meditations, ‘The Mystery of the Eucharist’.
The images in this first post are from the artist C. F. John (Indian, 1960–), Gathering Fragments, 2012. The artist writes of his work, ‘In the paintings, the image as well as the space around are fragmented into small parts of various proportions and are placed … together again to bring about a completion / harmony of its own.’
The images are evocative of an emptying of self and the desire of our fragmented, superficial, stupid and insufficient selves to be filled with God.
Enjoy this short piece from Psallos, Mercy, Peace, Love.
For a printable PDF of the text of this meditation please click on the link below.
