Believe and Never Hunger

April 24, 2012

Tuesday of the Third Week of Easter

 

By Beth DeCristofaro

Stephen said to the people, the elders, and the scribes:  "You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always oppose the Holy Spirit; you are just like your ancestors. … You received the law as transmitted by angels, but you did not observe it." (Acts 7:51, 53)

Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst." (John 6:35)

Piety

Dear God

You are all that Matters

Help us to be happy

Help us to be welcoming

We need each other.

(Prayer spoken by a woman with dementia, recorded in Spirituality and Personhood in Dementia, edt. Albert Jewell, Jessica Kingley Publishers, 2011, p. 157.)

Study

A group of people helped out as the cook crew for the Men’s Cursillo Weekend.  It was not only fun (is palanca supposed to be fun?) but replenishing as we shared the tasks, talked about our own Cursillo experiences and enjoyed the gratitude and good appetite of team and candidates.  We were fed by the living Jesus in this joyful community.

Last weekend, Tony and I also visited Ruth, his mother, who lives on an Alzheimer's unit in an assisted living facility in New Jersey.  Although mostly non-verbal, when Tony prayed the rosary with her recently, she raptly attended and tried to tell the rosary beads through her inept fingers.  We were all immersed for those grace-filled moments in Jesus’ life-giving water.

We might be tired as we chopped, cleaned and swept.  We are alternately sad and frustrated that this vibrant woman is debilitated with a devastating disease.  We might work long hours and be surrounded by economic uncertainty, political maliciousness and too frequent violence.  I am certainly often stiff-necked especially concerning things I care most about.  Most importantly, we are filled with and buoyed up by the faith which Jesus graced us with as sisters and brothers in His resurrection.  And we have a faith community which also acknowledges and lives this as best and as joyfully as we can. 

Action

What is it that keeps us from eating and drinking of the bread of life?  About what are you stiff-necked?  Pray on this and look at it from another viewpoint, a viewpoint of life and love not control, identity, ideology, trepidation or just plain human certainty.  We need each other.  We need Jesus our bread and our drink.