Wednesday, June 14, 2023

How can I be living bread? (Crystal Catalan)


   That’s how I think it is with the Lord. We are gathered at table, and we are one in God. And I think that is also where the invitation lies -- to make space, regardless of the size of the room, to be with one another and to not only look for ways to be bread to one another, but to simply be there and show up when moments do arise. 

   To allow Jesus’ actions of sharing meals with tax collectors and others whom society would have deemed unclean, to speak to our own hearts, transform us and ask ourselves the question, “How can I be living bread to my brothers and sisters on the margins just as Jesus was?” “And, “What bread can I bring them on their journey?” 

   Yes, there will always be others murmuring, grumbling maybe, and yes, even criticizing, others trying to bring us down, or maybe times when we feel we can’t seem to go on as prophets, but we are reminded from the psalm today that the Lord will hear us when we are afflicted and call out, and we will be saved from distress. 

   And so today, may we feast on the words of Jesus when he says, “I am the Bread of Life.” And may we, as a community of faith, move forward with a spirit of disponibilità, as St. Francis Xavier Cabrini would say, to reflect a spirit of openness, and willingness to do whatever needs to be done for the Kingdom, to bring peace and justice here on earth… 

--Crystal Catalan 

Image source: Peter Paul Rubens, Feast in the House of Simon the Pharisee (c.1618), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_the_Pharisee#/media/File:Rubens-Feast_of_Simon_the_Pharisee.jpg
Quotation source

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