Inspired by the Real Presence of Jesus

I was visiting a good friend Sunday afternoon. Her son had come from Syracuse and brought something special for dinner. It was a loaf of bread. Tony was excited about this particular loaf of bread. He had gone to a bakery in downtown Syracuse that is famous (he said) for their bread and a “hot tomato dipping sauce” they suggest to go with it. The excitement and the fame of this loaf and this bakery is well deserved. A firm crusted, Italian style bread with great texture and taste and a tasty sauce as well. It was just bread...but so good. The firm bite of the outer crust, the soft and tasty bread within, fabulous. Here in Fairport many folks feel the same about Amazing Grains Salt Bread...I often just call it Fairport Salt Bread. I have brought it to dinners, served it at dinners at the rectory, been asked by guests coming, ‘will you have some salt bread at dinner?’. Bread, the shelves at the store offer it in all sizes and shapes, styled for uses from holding a hotdog to encasing a sandwich all the while being simply bread. It nourishes, it sustains, it complements, and inspires and sometimes it has a following like this loaf from Syracuse or the Salt Bread from Fairport. In the desert centuries ago it sustained those wandering tribes of Israel on their journey from slavery to freedom and homeland. At a table in Jerusalem centuries later God again used bread to sustain not just for a day or until a next meal but sustain toward eternal life in bread become Body, real presence, living still in the bread at mass today that becomes Eucharist. Weekly, daily we come around the sacred altar of our church, a table, like the tables of our homes, the table that Jesus and the disciples gathered around. We come to the table and from it we are fed, body and soul. We are fed for our continuing journey of life for the coming day, the coming week. As our ancestors in faith were fed in the desert by that manna. Sustained for the journey they were on. As the disciples were fed for what would soon happen on that hill outside the city, Calvary. Like they would continue to be fed as they came together and the new communities of believers did as well not only remembering what Jesus did that Thursday night but repeated, reliving and receiving again and again the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus in Eucharist. We too are fed and sustained for our journey of life.