Gathering for Supper...

I have many fond memories from my childhood of gathering together with members of my family around the dinner table.  We would feast on simple home-cooked feasts.

There would be laughter, teasing, reacting - a competition for mashed potatoes.  And then the delightful sigh from a full belly.

On the anniversary of this holy supper, at the celebration of Maundy Thursday, I can't help but think what it must have been like for the disciples to gather together to celebrate the last supper.  Perhaps, intermittent, there was a bit of laughter, some sharing, some familial times - before everything grew quiet and the night took on a very serious nature.

It is in this gathering to share in the Lord's supper that we discover that we are part of a larger family.  And if we can be honest with ourselves in that holy moment, we can look around the table and see true sisters and brothers gathered with us - those who annoy us, those who make us laugh - and we all somehow are satisfied as we walk away having received tiny proportions of food and wine.  

If we can see "family" in this meal, we can see our own humanness and our need for forgiveness being poured out for us in wine and bread, blood and body, the essence of our Christ.  

This night starts out with joy and ends with a somber tone.  Sometimes life has those moments.  May God infuse us with a joy that knows no end, even as the disappointments, greed and desperation sometimes overtake us.