Holy Week

Several of the Mass readings during this Holy Week are about meals: the Passover meal, prepared and shared quickly, as deliverance from bondage was at hand; the Eucharistic meal of the Last Supper; a meal which overturned custom and expectations in which the master became the servant and gave his followers an example of what their life together should be like.

Most of us can probably remember a time when our family would get together regularly for dinner–not to romanticize it; sometimes there was tension at those meals, as we dealt with our real-life situations. But there were also times when we shared not only food, but, more importantly, our lives in comforting and supportive ways.

Perhaps, when we think about meals these days, the Exodus is a good model to describe the experience–a meal eaten, we are told, “with your loins girt, sandals on your feet and your staff in hand, you shall eat like those who are in flight;” a picture perhaps of the modern family as each one grabs a bite to eat and then rushes off to the next event in a busy life.

In terms of our faith and life together in Christ, the Eucharist is our most important meal, and we bring a lot to the table. In fact we bring everything we are and lay it out for the Lord to see and to love, to bless and to heal.

“Then he took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body, which will be given for you; do this in memory of me.'” (Luke 22:19)