Twentith Sunday of Ordinary Time
August 17, 2003


Do you like eating alone?

There was a period of time when I was on the road to six different college campuses and attended retreats at various locations around the state. The schedule and distance for Columbia’s retreat almost ensured that if I wanted to eat supper before I arrived, I would have to eat it alone. It was always a strange experience. From the hostess who would give you a funny look when you said “One”, to the server who realized they wouldn’t be getting much of a tip, to the other people in the restaurant who would glance at your table and you could almost see the questions… Why is that man eating by himself?

And then there was the experience of eating the food – it never quite tasted as good – without the pauses of conversation to savor the taste, without the rhythm of conversation to space the eating. Ask anyone who is recently widowed – they’ll tell you it is one of the most difficult parts of life after the death - the eating alone. We desire company in our eating, someone to share the stories, someone to share in the blessing that comes from bread broken. In fact, I will bet you that if you look at your photo album, you will not find a single picture of you eating in a restaurant alone.

It seems as if we are designed this way. We are made so we must eat. And we are made so that we want our meals to be a communion with others. We want the time that refuels our bodies to be a time that refuels our spirits as well… Do you enjoy when you have to eat alone, or is it something that you just endure?

For the good news that we celebrate today is that God does not like eating alone either. In the most vivid Greek terms, Jesus speaks about eating his flesh and drinking his blood, about sharing a meal with him, about ingesting the true food that he is. And, in one of the climactic sentences in this long ‘bread of life’ discourse, he says: “For whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in them.” Eating and drinking of Jesus allows him to remain in us and we in him. The communion we receive is as much about Jesus being real food as it is about Jesus sharing his life with us. “I am the living bread” - I am the relationship of Father and Spirit to you that is meant to bring you fullness of life and love. And my desire is that you do not eat alone – but that you have the life I wish to share.

You almost get tired of this discourse, because Jesus is saying the same things over and over again. ‘I desire you to know life. I desire you to be filled. I desire for you to know what I know, to live what I live. And even more so, I will be the means of that. “The bread that I will give is MY flesh for the life of the world.” The deepest dream of my heart is for you to know through eating with me, the love I have for you and the love my Father has for you. I want to REMAIN with you, be in COMMUNION with you. It’s not about eating alone anymore. It’s about knowing fullness, a life and a union with the Father and I. This is what I long for you to know.’ And in as many ways as he can say it, he tries to put into words what we instinctively know – we are not designed to eat alone – but to be in communion with God and each other.
If you understand this, if you agree with this, then there are a few obvious conclusions, obvious directions perhaps to pray into this week.

1) For those beginning High School and College anew, after you’ve gotten your food – will you seek out the people who are sitting alone and invite yourself to table with them? Or, once you are seated, will you make eye contact with the lost soul who has their plate of food and is now looking for a place to land – so they know they are welcome to your table?

2) Will you welcome to the table at your house someone whose circumstance have just changed – death, divorce, separation and who eats alone – to table with you this week?

3) On the ‘spiritual’ side of this – it is so easy to ‘eat alone’ here at Mass. I wonder how often a guest or even a parishioner comes to mass on Saturday or Sunday, slides into their pew and with the exception of the nod at the sign of peace, leaves here without ever having spoken in a meaningful way to another human being? How often to people ‘eat alone” here at this table? Will you make the effort to say hello to at least one ‘new’ person this week?

Do you like eating alone? Most of the time, (save breakfast) I don’t. But the good news is – neither does God. And at this table, we never eat alone – because of the gift of Jesus - the living bread - who remains in us and we in him.