Rich Food

Luke’s gospel is replete with meals. Even today’s parable is about food. The rich man ate sumptuously but never gave a crust of bread to the poor man outside his door, even though the beggar “longed to eat the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table.” Whether the man died from his infirmities or starvation, we don’t know. But we do know “he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham.” Not the rich man, though. He and his purple robes landed in a place of torment.

Throughout Luke’s Gospel Jesus provides the meal, talks about food, eats plucked grain on the sabbath, multiplies loaves and fish, stops at Martha and Mary’s house for hospitality, teaches us to pray for our daily bread, instructs the preparations for the Passover, and gives us the Eucharist. Bon appétit!  Be open to all the ways we can “taste and see the goodness of the Lord” (Ps. 34:9).