Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus to say, ‘Where do you want us to make the preparations for you to eat the passover?’ ‘Go to so-and-so in the city’ he replied ‘and say to him, “The Master says: My time is near. It is at your house that I am keeping PASSOVER with my disciples.”
The shared memory and dynamic of the Passover is something which frames the Liturgy of the Word during Lent. Through the Old Testament readings we are invited to embark on the demanding wilderness journey with our Biblical ancestors, to feel again the hunger and confusion in the desert and to experience the triumphal passage through the Red Sea. In the New Testament readings we walk alongside Jesus who is making resolutely for Jerusalem where he will eat his last Passover meal and then pass over from death to life.
In the semi-nomadic culture of the Ancient Near East there was a springtime ritual known as ‘pesach’ (Passover). When the dry season began the shepherds needed to find water and new pasture for their flocks. The journey was dangerous. They performed a sacrifice as a means of protection and then shared a meal. The journey was necessary for the wellbeing of their flock because staying in the winter pasture could mean losing some of their flock. The ritual meal bonded the group together and this strengthened them for the journey.
Meals bind us together. The bonds that develop when food is shared have a special quality. The connections which are made with others during a meal cannot really be planned. The rituals involved in any meal provide the framework for this connection.
Lent invites us to look again at the meals we share and how God speaks to us through them. Which meals will you share this week?
(Matthew 26: 14-25, Wednesday of Holy Week)