Our Daily Bread?

The Easter season is a time of formation in discipleship. The risen Lord is showing us that he is going to be present…but not the way he used to be…walking, talking, eating…with the disciples. He is weening them from physical experience, and forming them for a faith-walk. He presents the intimate image of himself as Shepherd. He also describes how he will feed that constant new faithful presence. He tells the disciples that they must daily eat him. They must eat his flesh and drink his blood. At first they are shocked at this language. But soon they begin to understand a little of the mystery of how this has to do with the way they relate to one another.

The word for flesh is sarx. It means more than body, which is the word soma. It means humanness with all its limitations. But he has a risen, transformed humanness…He is no longer “limited.” So, what could he possibly mean? Ah…he is the risen head, but his Body, which we are, is still struggling in time/space, with all its “limits.” Could he mean that our “daily bread’ is the total Christ…that each time we receive him sacramentaly we also welcome each other? Could he mean that daily we must ‘eat’ one another with all those limitations, faults, and irritations? Even more amazing, could he mean that this type of ‘communion’ is going on all over the world…on the evening news, as compassion shows up in the most unexpected places? Do w know what we are asking for, when we pray “Give us this day, our daily bread…?”

 Now they see you, now they don’t.

What is this game you’re playing?

Are you ‘going to the Father?’

or

Will you be ‘with us until the end of the age?’

Or maybe the answer is, ‘Yes!’

You really have never ‘left’ have you.

You have found a way to stay with us even as you return to your Father.

And

You have found a way to feed our love quotient day by day

Each time we feed on you…

Because you bring them all, don’t you.

All my family, my friends, and yes, those I consider enemies.

They are not all to my ‘taste.’ They irritate me.

Is it really ‘all or nothing’ with you?

Can’t have the Head without the Body?

Be patient with me…

I’m still learning…

What ‘give us this day our daily bread’ might really mean.

 

Let Us Dream Part I: A Time to ‘See’

 Back in March, we reflected on the Prologue to Pope Francis’ book: Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future. We explored some of the big ideas that prompted him to dream, and then write. He ends the Prologue by saying that we need to see clearly, choose well, and act right. This month we will look at Part I, A Time to See.

 So, what would Francis have us ‘see?’ First, last, and ways…real people. Not just numbers but real people, especially the people on the edges. Francis believes that the folks on the edges can convert the rest of us. Their plight jars us out of our indifference, which he calls the ‘other virus.’ Their situations will overwhelm us but need never rob us of our hope. Their plight stirs up a culture of service in contrast to a throwaway culture.

 But Francis is a realist, and he names three attitudes that will offer escapes from really ‘seeing’ someone’s situation. They are narcissism, discouragement, and pessimism. Narcissism is drowning in your own image. Discouragement is seeing only what you’ve lost, and pessimism shuts the door on the future. In a way, he believes that COVID has actually helped us ‘see’ differently. We are beginning to see that those who have been cast aside can become the agents of a new future. The common new project that then arises becomes changing the very way society itself operates. The people on the edge become the protagonists of social change.

 Myopia is selecting what I will allow myself to see. I can then turn away because it’s better not to feel anything. “So-whatism” sets in, which blocks discernment. The media often presents this challenge. It reveals a humanity getting sicker right along with our common home.

 But really seeing stirs up not merely a green energy, it arouses a social energy. Like drops on a sponge, it forms an awareness, not a self-centered ideology which is a lopsided awareness. Francis ends by declaring that sin is a rejection of the limits that love requires. Instead, he calls for an integral ecology, a ‘digging in’ to uncover the deep changes we need to face. Once we ‘see’ properly, the next challenge is to choose. Stay tuned…!