In this Sunday’s Gospel Jesus continually challenges people to have life within them. He speaks of Divinity as that source of life within all. For Jesus, all creation embodies life-giving Divinity. So it is that the bread and wine Jesus offers have Divine life within them. So too do each of us. Today’s Gospel message imparts that the power of having Divine life within and between can be realized when we share the communion of meals.
The communion we share in meals is a life-giving power. It is lived every day but some associate it with a Sunday gathering. Part of the purpose of the Sunday gathering is to help participants live communion routinely every day in between. Sunday communion participants may erroneously treat it as if it is a once a week lock box opened by a special class for a special club and its special members. We may thus not be open to Jesus’ challenge that every day is a sharing of Divine life within us and between us. We can live communion always. A group of people in Boulder, Colorado do their daily best to live communion. A handful of young friends, concerned about people lacking food while also knowledgeable about food waste, began organizing. They started making the rounds of stores, on their bikes. The stores had good but imperfect food, and therefore non sellable. The young people asked for donations. They then began sharing communion meals, every Sunday. They hosted a meal in a park located in an area called a food desert. In time, the Divine life within and between grew. They started a food redistribution organization. They grew into Boulder Food Rescue that grew into 150 volunteers who make the rounds of eight stores a day and distribute 1,000 pounds of fresh food every day. Every day they share communion during meals . They share communion at low-income housing sites, homes for the elderly, preschools and after-school programs.
Communion is not a memory. Nor is it a once a week ritual. Communion is an Incarnating. It is the continued realization of Divine life within and between. It is a Divine life that is so very earthy and so very common, like the food and the people that nourish us each and every day.
Prayer: Source of All Life, may we live knowing the communion we share.
Question: With who am I sharing the Divine life within me?
August 16 2015 Gospel John 6:51-58 Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
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