What is nourishing you?

People are often very conscious of what they eat today. There is such a variety of foods from which to choose. As a lad it was meat and three veg, other than on Friday when there was the delight of Fish n Chips! Today, the possibility of take aways or order ins are plentiful. And one of the gifts of our ethnic diversity is the culinary diversity which this brings.

Yet while scripture passages offered to us by the Church this week speak of food and drink, to be taken, eaten, drunk, and enjoyed, we can see that the actual nourishment being offered is beyond the literal. On Tuesday the Prophet Ezekiel spoke of being offered a scroll to eat. Today Wisdom offers the simple, us, her wine and food laid upon her table. In the Gospel of John, Jesus offers his flesh, his body and blood to eat, to drink.

Every day we are nourished through our senses. We are nourished through what we see, hear, smell, touch, and taste. Yet are we making choices when it comes to what enters us through our senses? Are we seeking to enjoy sights, sounds, aromas, touch, and tastes which are actually going to give us life? Like some fast food, there is plenty around which can ‘fill us up’, and even give us a temporary fix, but will this give us life to the full?!

In the Sacraments we are nourished by God’s Word and through the presence of the Risen Lord. This nourishment will enable us to live eternally. This is the food which forms our response to all that life places before us. How is our daily intake of the Scriptures? How often are we availing of the Risen Lord in prayer and in the Sacraments?

I included a wonderful quote from St Jerome, the great Scripture Scholar, in a recent workshop on the Liturgy of the Word, “When we approach the (Eucharistic) mystery, if a crumb falls to the ground, we are troubled. Yet when we are listening to the word of God and God’s Word and Christ’s flesh and blood is being poured into our ears, yet we pay no heed, what great peril should we not feel?” (St Jerome).

Yes, both Word and Sacrament are essential nourishment for life; today and tomorrow. A reflection for us in the days ahead is to notice what is nourishing us. Are we being nourished well through our senses? How are we choosing? Remembering as Jesus says, “the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.”

With prayers, patrick