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The Sacraments of Hospitality ˜ 209
have words to describe the mystery of the presence of God in our lives. We have
sacrament to act out the drama. We have sacrament to give us understanding.
In sharing the bread and juice, we remember the story: the sacrament of liberation,
forgiveness, and healing. In sharing our own lives and stories, we come to
understand the truths of our lives and how our experiences become holy as we
share life with one another.
We come to the Eucharist each week as the center of our lives. We come
into this circle because we understand that it nourishes us; it makes us whole.
Table companionship has been the starting point of every ministry at the Open
Door. Everything we do starts with dinner, whether in our prison ministry, or
our soup kitchen, or any ministry that we share.
As we come to Eucharist, I read a story from Luke’s Gospel that is not normally
read as a Eucharist passage. But I believe it communicates some of the
truths of Eucharist. The incident takes place when Jesus was moving around
Galilee, preaching and teaching and healing. He had healed many people of
their diseases and demon possessions, and he was in active conflict already with
the government. Jesus had sent his disciples off, and they returned to tell Jesus
everything that they had done.
Jesus took them with him, and they went off by themselves to
a town called Bethsaida. When the crowds heard about it, as
usual, they followed him. He welcomed them, spoke to them
about the reign of God, and healed those who needed it.
When the sun was beginning to set, the twelve disciples came
to Jesus and said, “Send the people away so that they can go
to the villages and farms around here and find food and lodging
because this is a lonely place.” But Jesus said, “You yourselves
give them something to eat.” They answered, “But all
we have is five loaves and two fish. Do you want us to go and
buy food for this whole crowd” There were about 5,000 men
there [we can assume there were 15,000 to 20,000 people, if
the women and children were counted]. Jesus said to his disciples,
“Make the people sit down in groups of about fifty
each.” After they had done so, Jesus took the five loaves and
two fish, looked up to heaven, and thanked God for them.
Then he broke them, and gave them to his disciples to distribute
to the people. They all ate and had enough, and the
disciples took up twelve baskets of what was left over. (Luke
9:10–17)
This story is presented as one of the miracle stories. It seems to indicate supernatural
power that Jesus had to take a little bread and a couple of fish, and
to serve between five thousand and twenty thousand people. It is a miracle. It’s