The Same Kind of Meal

The Same Kind of Meal

Niall McAuley at Flickr

This is surely what we read in the Proverbs of Solomon: If you sit down to eat at the table of a ruler, observe carefully what is set before you; then stretch out your hand, knowing that you must provide the same kind of meal yourself. What is this ruler’s table if not the one at which we receive the body and blood of him who laid down his life for us? What does it mean to sit at this table if not to approach it with humility? What does it mean to observe carefully what is set before you if not to meditate devoutly on so great a gift? What does it mean to stretch out one’s hand, knowing that one must provide the same kind of meal oneself, if not what I have just said: as Christ laid down his life for us, so we in our turn ought to lay down our lives for our brothers? This is what the apostle Paul said: Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we might follow in his footsteps.

This meditation from the Office of Readings this morning really struck me.  I love how the Catholic Church reveals all these synchronicities in Old and New Testament passages.  This one came from a treatise on St. John by St. Augustine.  This adds yet another dimension to the gift of the Eucharist, and added responsibility as well to know and understand what I am committing to when I present myself for Communion.