Friday of the Second Week of Easter

Now is the time!

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/042012.cfm

Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks,
and distributed them to those who were reclining,
and also as much of the fish as they wanted.
When they had had their fill, he said to his disciples,
"Gather the fragments left over,
so that nothing will be wasted."

The Roman collar is a lightning rod for all kinds of interesting responses; and, as I amble through the wards of the VA Hospital, I have to be prepared for anything. More often than not it attracts friendliness and affection. People are genuinely glad to see a priest, any priest, in the hospital. Catholics and Protestants alike say, “Hello, Father!” and I feel privileged to wear it.

But it also summons odd opinions about spirituality and religion. Healthier patients and visitors, meeting one they suppose is an expert in religion, are eager to bounce their notions off the solid wall of my training, perhaps to see if it leaves an impression. Sometimes, when my patience runs thin, hearing about out-of-body experiences, eastern mysticism, angelic apparitions, and holographic universes, I ask, “So how do you worship God?”

It doesn’t stop the conversation; it doesn’t even draw a response. It’s just a speed bump in the discussion, a signal to me that I have heard as much as I can stand and need to move on.

Today’s story about the feeding of five thousand in the wilderness leads us into the sixth chapter of Saint John. This revered text invites contemplation of the Eucharist and the question: How do I worship God?

I notice Jesus’ last command in the story: Gather the fragments left over, so that nothing will be wasted. In any language and surely every culture, waste is a terrible thing. It is not reverent. Jesus instructs his disciples to show reverence to the excess food.

We could suppose if he performed this miracle once he could do it repeatedly. We don’t have to worry about waste anymore! He will always give us excess amounts of food and drink! With him we can march into the world leaving a trail of debris wherever we go.

Waste has been the American way of life ever since European farmers started exploiting the eastern seaboard and moving west into the interior. We find their traces still in the conifer forests that now reclaim once fertile fields. Food, clothing, materiel, people: God will provide an overabundance! But Jesus says, “Gather the fragments….”

So should we reverently approach John 6.

Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks,
and distributed them to those who were reclining….

Our Eucharist recalls those sacred gestures with the Offertory, Eucharistic Prayer, Fraction and Distribution of Communion. These are familiar rites of Jewish meals and Christian banquets. We place the food on the table, thank God for it, share it among ourselves, and eat. No one has too much, no one needs more than enough:

This is what the Lord has commanded: “Gather as much of it as each of you needs, an omer to a person according to the number of persons, all providing for those in their own tents.” ’ The Israelites did so, some gathering more, some less. But when they measured it with an omer, those who gathered much had nothing over, and those who gathered little had no shortage; they gathered as much as each of them needed. And Moses said to them, ‘Let no one leave any of it over until morning.’ Exodus 16:16-19

In our Catholic tradition, we always store the “excess” in our tabernacle, that sacred chamber inherited from Jewish worship, for it is the Body of Christ.

And so we’ll continue throughout the coming days, reflecting on the Eucharist and my peevish question, “So how do you worship God?”