I really needed to spend some time alone in my hotel room this Saturday morning, ignoring the phone and the quiet knocks at my door from my buddy Ramadan who is part of the room cleaning service here.
I’ve just needed some silence.
But now I am roused by one of the most exciting things I am being given the privilege to do here, and that is to participate in a Eucharist (Holy Communion, Feast of God, the Bread and Wine, whatever you know it as) with Fr. Douglas, in Aramaic, the language of Jesus.
For those of you who couldn’t care less about this church stuff, this would be like, say, if you’re a football fan, having dinner with Messi or Renaldo, (though why anyone thinks Renaldo is the Stuff is a mystery to me. Pele just said on the BBC that Messi is the guy he sees the divine and inexplicable spirit of soccer reflected in… I agree).
So I get to go be with these folks celebrating the Mass (literal meaning something like, unsurprisingly, “to be sent”) with great new friends whom I already love and respect. The deep theology behind this rite is that when we celebrate it the love of God, present among us in Christ’s and our own bodies joining at the most essential level (that would be food) goes out to the entire creation EVERY TIME AND UNENDINGLY. And that’s just the way I see it.
So in about an hour I will be celebrating with you, your spirit, your very breath, your very heart, and the the very heart of God dreaming the great dream of peace and lovingness among all of us, again.
You are never far from me.
Peace and grace,
Fr. Chris