Reflection for Friday, November 20, 1998: 33rd week in Ordinary Time.
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Authors
Schuler, Jeanne
Issue Date
1998-11-20
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Essay
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en_US
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The Sweetness and Indigestion of Faith||When I was young, treasures were things or animals: the bike, the dog, the doll with red hair. Things still matter, but now words glow like ripe fruit that can be eaten straight off the vine. The phrase that bobs up out of the sea of words for the grasping heart.|Maybe the prophets, often the parables, always the psalms, even the proverbs. Adventure comes hard to me; I return to the familiar with a greed that seems to grow with the years. "Knock and you shall receive," "You have probed me and you know me." "He told me everything I ever did." "My soul yearns," "Like a stream," "I shall not die but live." "Have mercy" "Have mercy" And in today's readings: "How sweet to my taste is your promise."|As our education stretches out, we may find the mystery of religion disconcerting. A phalanx of distinctions buffers us from the shock of what exceeds our best analysis. "Eucharist? Body of Christ? Oh, it's metaphor. It's culture. Just a philosophical addendum." Even "mystery" becomes more of a rebuttal and less of a presence. In Maurice Sendak's story, it was the wild things that threaten to eat up the one they love. We are not wild things. We are not children. We are not tempted to eat the one we love.|It is God who boosts us over the hump of our disbelief. "Troubled by the idea of feeding on my body? Try feeding on my words." And words touch our hunger till desire springs up stronger than before. Till we need the words, like we need our coffee or Snickers break. Words that push us through our week, keep us going, lift our heads, fill our lungs, steady our gaze, make the ache go away for a while. How sweet the promise tastes.|Do we ever stop needing the comfort of faith? The need for consolation has no bottom; it goes on and on. We are that hungry. But it isn't enough to feed on the words. Sooner or later the words so sweet to the tongue turn sour in the stomach. What fickle comfort is this? The sweetness we cling to becomes our new indigestion. Scripture tells us to return to the church, the boss, to friends, Mom, the kids, that justice thing. But this is where hunger came from in the first place? Why go back? Why speak out? Why keep trying?|I don't want the meal to end. I don't want to leave the table and return to those problems tethered somewhere out there in the darkness beyond the glow. I swallow. There within me, no longer alone. The One we love.
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University Ministry, Creighton University.
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These reflections may not be sold or used commercially without permission. Personal or parish use is permitted.
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Lectionary number: 501