Missionaries of the Sacred Heart

By Sister Theresa Molchanow, MSC

Learn to savor how good the Lord is…(Psalm 34:9)

It was my first year on mission in Vunapope, Papua New Guinea. I was happily teaching the incoming students at St. Mary’s School of Nursing. Suddenly, the appendicitis that had made me ill, become a ruptured appendix, an emergency! Despite my youth, I was very sick. Recovery took months! In trying to build me up and get me back on my feet, the Sisters had asked: “What would you like to eat? Name it and we will get it for you!” Do you know what I had an appetite for and wanted more than anything that the bountiful South Pacific had to offer? Corn Flakes! Yes, breakfast cereal! The Sisters went out of their way to buy Corn Flakes for me and to have an order of fresh cows’ milk delivered to the convent every day. I was never so spoiled!

How blest are we to be able to taste and to smell, to have enough to eat and enough clean water to drink! For us, taste and food are almost inseparable. Taste and smell give us so much pleasure and come with such vivid memories. I knew a Sister who, on the first day of baseball season, could actually smell the catcher’s leather glove when she opened the front door of her home! Then, is there anything like the smell of a baby, the smell of the first rose of summer, the ocean or Nona’s spaghetti gravy? Surely, you have a favorite perfume, a favorite food, a favorite beverage! Your favorite smell may be as pure as the scent of the morning’s air, as symbolic as incense! Your favorite taste may be as basic as salt! When, last, have you really enjoyed a scent that came to your notice or tasted what you were eating or drinking? Noticing a taste takes time and thought. When we truly savor our food or drink, we praise God, honor our own body that is being nourished and thank those who produced and provided them. Just imagine how good the loaves and fish tasted to the Five Thousand! (John 6:1-14)

Tasting and food, thirst and water, salt, bread, wine, fish, eating, drinking, feasting are frequently cited in Sacred Scripture. There is a bond between food, water and life that does not need much explanation in order to understand. Yet, metaphorically speaking, it takes thought and prayer to, as Psalm 34 suggests, “Taste and see the goodness of God.” Jesus talked of salt. “Salt is good,” he said. “You are the salt of the earth but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? Keep salt in your hearts and live in harmony with one another.” (Matthew 5:13, Mark 9:49, Luke 14:34) Jesus spoke of himself as “the bread of life,” adding: “Whoever comes to me will never be hungry; whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” (John 6:35) At a meal, he gave us his own body and blood: “Take and eat…Drink, all of you…” (Matthew 26:26-30)

How do we move from thinking about the food and drink we consume for nourishment and pleasure to experiencing Jesus as real food and drink in the Eucharist, essential and life-giving? “The bread you see on the altar, sanctified by the word of God, is the body of Christ,” wrote Saint Augustine. “The chalice, or rather, what the chalice contains, sanctified by the word of God, is the blood of Christ. In these signs, Christ the Lord willed to entrust to us His body and the blood that He shed for the forgiveness of our sins. If you have received them properly, you yourselves are what you have received.” (Augustine, Sermon 227)

How do we move from the altar of Eucharist to the “table” of the world, to communion with our brothers and sisters in the world? It’s what we do as The Body of Christ that matters! “The Body of Christ,” the minister of Eucharist prays, “The Blood of Christ,” to which we respond, “Amen.” We need to partake of the Eucharist regularly and often because it is so easy to forget that we are part of a larger reality. Taking the initiative, Jesus had said: “Do this in memory of me…(Luke 22:19) In Augustine’s words, you are to “Become what you see. Receive who you are—The Body of Christ!”