“Have you anything here to eat?”
The words in todays gospel that resonated with my inner foodie! Being an Indian, we celebrate and mourn with food, we welcome with food and we are divided in one country from all 4 corners by food!! Hard to believe! While being a Goan catholic, I was brought up eating meats and bread, many of my Indian co workers are pure vegetarians and abhor even plant based food that grows below the soil– tubers.
It seems odd but equally fascinating that when I travelled across my own country I had to adjust with not just the language but the various food available. While the insides of my gut and tongue craved for the familiar xit kodi nustem i.e. rice and coconut curry and fish ( Goa is a state on western coast of India), I was stuck eating pulses and cereals in various forms and shapes for last few months. I did swallow the meal with no complain and even missed my home cooked meal more than ever, I was grateful I had a decent meal on my plate and was thankful to God!
When Jesus, newly resurrected, comes to His disciples and asks for something to eat, He was not just hungry like me post every day of work, but he wished to show his human side and the fact that his body had defeated death. While the disciples watched him eat baked fish ( Yum!), he explained how the prophecies were all coming true!! The mere presence of a Son of man who defeated death and yet so nonchalantly sits and eats fish at the table is awe inspiring and humbling!
Today, despite all the prophecies being made available to us on every platform , we find it hard to devour this truth of the resurrection. We are in fact hungry , but try to fulfill our needs of nutrition with junk and fast food of the world of greed and sin. While obesity is a growing problem, the major issue at hand is the difficulty we have in curbing our earthly desires.
While lenten season does help us to self discipline but do we stop at the “no meat on fridays”?! We need to feed this hunger we feel with His word and sacrament. We need to join the table with fellow faithful like this website and learn more about the abundance of the Lords servings in our lives. We could start with sips of a daily prayer or a weekly rosary and gradually move up in our faith to a meal over time. But we need this nourishment to survive and should not avoid it!
Let us work hard to focus on our faith everyday just like we plan our diet with detail and shed the weight of sin slowly and steadily and accept the lord into ourselves to reform us physically, mentally and spiritually.
Prayer:
Dear Lord, I stand here as a witness to the faith I have in your resurrection this Easter. I want to be filled with the Holy spirit so I can never feel the need to stray away from your word. Help me Lord and guide me to a meal of fulfilment and eternal salvation. Amen
