The Spiritual and Physical Nourishment of a Meal

Our Immaculate Conception Province (AKA SNDUSA) is blessed with a marvelous leader. Sister Margaret Mary Gorman has spent the past week in the Toledo area. Our little community of three in Waterville, Ohio, was pleased to have dinner with her one evening. Conversation was relaxed, nothing forced or artificial, yet appropriately deep and light in turn.

We know of about ten meals that Jesus had—and certainly he had hundreds of other meals in his childhood home, at neighborhood gatherings, and on the road. I imagine that Jesus had a way of making everyone feel comfortable as they ate. There was freedom that allowed conversation to be a catalyst toward community and communion. For Jesus “table sharing is more than feeding. . . It is the way of becoming nourishment for one another, so that life may become more abundant together” (Ilia Delio). Ultimately Jesus gave himself as nourishment with the words “This is my Body. . . This is my Blood.”

I imagine that the meals we shared with Sister Margaret Mary have drawn our region of the province into more unity, more love for Notre Dame, more appreciation for its leadership, more eagerness for mission—just as those who dined with Jesus probably felt. That’s a great return for the little, unnecessary worry over sweet potatoes being done on time and a pie crust looking golden brown.