Summerset August 2012

Emmaus a

Summerset August 2012

Be guided by your hunger

 The sign outside the café said, “Be guided by your hunger”. “Coming together for a meal’ is what we call Company. Really it is coming together for bread. “Coming together for holy Mass” is the same as company.

Are we hungry? hungry for the food of life? The truth is simple. Hunger is itself the guide. Jesus said,”I am the living bread. Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world.” What can we say? Thanks, thanks, Eucharist.

When we enter for Mass, are we prepared for an awesome reality of sitting at the table with Jesus? Are we hungry when He says, “Take this. This is my Body given for you, the gift from God that seeks God. It will turn us from food too weak for us, and likewise from food too strong. We will be guided by our hunger and whatever tastes good to the soul will be the feast of God.

Is this Mass, round the table with Jesus, not an awesome reality? We take it often for granted. We talk; we share a story, we laugh. The sign of the cross is a routine; the singing might be spiritual. The word”laughter” is not in the Bible. But the word” enjoyment” is. Receiving the host, the Body of Christ, on our hand, on our tongue is an awesome reality and a reason of great enjoyment. But are we aware of this great miracle?

Hospitality helps us to greet people and open the door. We welcome them to the table of Christ. We introduce them to the breaking of the Bread. They are no strangers any more. They share our communion which makes us one and healed. In the breaking of the Bread we recognise Christ in each other like this happened at Emmaus.

 All this is still an awesome reality. This transformation in the sharing in the Bread of life is a miracle of multiplication of all. We are sacrament to each other.

                  Emmaus b

God Bless

 Fr John Heijnen

319 Summerset@Aotea, 15 Aotea Drive, Porirua