One of the more important, if not entertaining, lessons parents teach their youngsters is the difference between eating food, and everything else they might be interested in putting into their mouths. In a world of antiseptic wipes, gels, and coughs that must now be stifled in the crux of one’s arm, we take great care to teach about and model for them everything we ingest.

We do so because what we take into our bodies can change everything.

Taking something into our bodies is the most profound way there is of accepting it.  Not just in the kitchen, but in the bedroom.  While the mind ascents and the soul becomes stirred, it is the body that gives us the most tangible expression of what we mean to say, do, and accept.

Accepting the reign of Christ is at the center of Sunday’s Gospel – when Jesus tells us about a landowner who rents out his vineyard to some hoodlums who refuse to accept his authority. They don’t recognize who’s boss and, as a result, pay the price.

Accepting Jesus’ authority has gotten no easier.  We still want to have things our way, take all the credit, and ignore the landlord.  This is why Christians go to great lengths to ascent to God’s reign, not just with mind and soul – but, through the Sacrament of bread and wine that Jesus commended – we accept God’s reign through our bodies as well.

So if we are what we eat, could Communion make us anything better?

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Reading

Not Your Parent’s Offering Plate – J Clif Christopher

Matthew – Donald Hagner

Living in the Village – Ryan C. Mack