Thursday,
one story tells,
with friends he shared a meal
and later yet with friends he was
betrayed.
Today is my favorite liturgical day of the year – there is something about this story of blessing and spiritual union being known around the table in the sharing of the meal. Maybe I’m just a gourmand – as the French would say. Maybe I’ve lived too long in France, and appreciate too much the foodie culture of Oakland. And yet there is a power in the meal that we are increasingly losing. I ate a burrito Tuesday during a lunch break and noticed that of the 6 people, besides me on the restaurant patio, I was the only one not eating and using my cell phone at the same time. And some of the 6 people were eating together.
We overlook the importance of sharing communion – the meal – together because it’s usually like the top picture, a small wafer, small servings, almost as if it’s been anasceptisized. Yet that night, the last supper, was a meal – more like this painting.
There is a power in sharing a meal, in sharing food together. We drop our walls. We’re open to being fed. We’re open to each other in ways we usually aren’t. And yet increasingly we’re opening ourselves to screens and devices instead of one another.
PRACTICE FOR THE DAY
Take the time today to share a meal, or even a snack, coffee break, etc. with someone else. Notice how you feel during and after the conversation. How were you blessed through that connection with another living creature created in God’s image?
PRAYERS FOR THE DAY
It was on a Thursday
that Jesus was hunted, betrayed, denied.
So today we pray,
Holy source of all that is,
comforter of the hunted,
strengthen those betrayed by social structures,
greed and self-interest;
rescue those denied by fair-weather relationships;
be present to those who call on your name,
to those we named on our lips,
and in the silence of our hearts,
those whose concerns are known only to you;
in Jesus’ name…
Liturgical reading and prayers taken from http://thebillabong.info © Jeff Shrowder, 2013.