Posts Tagged ‘Food’

I’m showing up as I can – some days more than others. I say to God, “This is where I am. This is what I have and don’t have. And this is what I need.” In the Eucharist I say, “Here I am.” And God says, “Yes, here I am for you today.”

Since the very beginnings of the church, we have remembered Jesus with food, food that we eat and share in community, and we have remembered Jesus as food, food that sustains us, and becomes part of our very being. Eating this food together, we become the body of Christ.

It’s a really powerful practice to recognize the gift of sustenance in a world where so many people are starving – starving for food, but also starving for love, starving to belong, starving for shelter, starving for justice. We can use the gift of our hunger – and the provision to sate our hunger – as a reminder to take food as a gift, not just a given. Let food have a symbolic, iconic quality of the hungers that surround us in this world.

The Eucharist has a way of surprising us. It’s not always this feeling that I’m engorged and full – and so grateful to be full of Jesus. Sometimes the Spirit says, “We are going to feed you today with this lack that you are feeling. This lack that you’re feeling is going to be what feeds you.”

Jesus comes to us as food in the Eucharist, and he’s truly present in the bread and wine. But even before that, he is present in the breaking open of the bread of scripture. And he’s present in the gathered community.

Having now received the Eucharist – most days – for ten years, I know that there’s always more. There’s always more to receive of God. I’m always further in need, which is the humbling part. And God has good gifts to give.