As 6:00 p.m. drew near, college students began streaming into my two-bedroom apartment, affectionately nicknamed ‘the upper room.’ Everyone took a seat, mostly on the floor. We prayed together. Then it was time to dish up.
For a college student, a homemade meal is a welcome gift. We came together as a team one evening a month to work on an ‘underground’ newspaper we published that academic year so long ago. What brought everyone together was a shared mission. What kept everyone together was our love for Jesus and our Catholic Faith. But the meals sure helped!
I’d like to say that everyone came to ‘the upper room’ for my delicious food–but that would make it all about me! For each of us, it was clear that Jesus was the one who drew us together. Because of him, we could enjoy a meal that nourished our bodies, even as we allowed the gift of our friendship to nourish our souls.
A little less than ten years after those upper room days, I found myself in the national spotlight, competing on the Food Network’s culinary competition, Chopped.
By this point, I was a Franciscan of the Eucharist of Chicago, living on the city’s West Side, where my religious community and I serve the very poor, especially through food pantries and our community meal program. I’d grown to love preparing regular, homemade meals sponsored by different parishes and organizations. Not only did these groups provide all the food for the meals, but they also sent volunteers who would roll up their sleeves, working alongside my sisters and me to add the most important ingredient of all: love.
I have no formal culinary training, but depending solely on Divine Providence (which is part of how my community lives our vow of poverty) proved to be an excellent training program for Chopped. Week in and week out, we receive food from various partners and food rescue programs. There has never been a lack of food—or variety of meal options! —even during COVID, when we served over 1,000 families a week for several months.
As I walked on set at the Food Network, the cameras started to roll. Before rolling up the sleeves of my brown habit, I made the Sign of the Cross and offered everything to Jesus. I knew it would be beautiful for him and for the poor I had the privilege of representing. After turkey quesadillas with goat cheese dipping sauce, spiced turkey with sweet potato-russet potato hash and a dessert pancake with cocoa nib sauce moved from my pans onto plates and before the judges, I was declared the winner!
To say that I had a huge amount of fun competing would be an understatement. Even now, years after the competition, I continue to treasure the time I spend in the kitchen, whether I’m preparing dinner for my community, for our neighborhood, or for gatherings of priests and religious, just to name a few. There is something powerful about being the instrument that transforms multiple ingredients into a single, delicious dish. And that something powerful points me toward eternity.
Every time we go to Mass, bread and wine–made from simple wheat and grapes—become the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit and the instrumentality of the priest. The fruits of earth and vine, which are tended to by human hands, become our spiritual food and drink through the ministry of the priest who offers the Eucharistic Sacrifice on behalf of the entire Church. The Paschal Mystery by which our redemption is accomplished is re-presented, and we enter into Jesus’ life-saving redemptive act in a mysterious, yet real, way.
In the beginning, Adam reached out and took the forbidden fruit, rupturing humanity’s relationship with God. In the New Covenant accomplished through the Blood of Jesus, we are nourished with the Bread from Heaven, which strengthens and deepens our bond with God. How wonderful that even the act of eating has been elevated by Jesus!
Just as we don’t stay at a meal, but leave the table to continue our life and friendships in other ways, we don’t stay at Mass either! When the Mass concludes, we are sent out after the Dismissal Rite. We hear the deacon or priest say “Go, the Mass is ended,” or another similar prayer formula. We respond, “Thanks be to God!”
What is really going on here?
We are being sent out from Mass to share the fruits of what we have just celebrated. Having been transformed by the Eucharist, we now go out as instruments of grace and transformation for others and indeed for all creation. We respond with an exclamation of gratitude—“Thanks be to God!” —because this commission is one of the greatest reminders of our profound dignity as children of God. Through our baptism, we become willing participants in the life-saving mission of Christ. With him, we offer our own flesh—our time, energy, talents, sacrifices—in union with Jesus, “for the life of the world” (Jn 6:51).
For a while now, I’ve been pondering this familiar prayer said before meals:
“Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts,
which we are about to receive,
from thy bounty
through Christ, our Lord. Amen.”
What strikes me more and more about this short prayer is that it is not only about offering gratitude for the food we are about to enjoy, but for all of God’s good gifts, especially the gift of one another.
As we are nourished daily by the fruits of the earth, may the Lord stir up in each of our hearts an ever-deeper hunger for communion with him and one another through the Eucharist. This is the communion that leads us to live truly Eucharistic lives pouring ourselves out in self-sacrificial love with Jesus for the life of the world.
Download Looking for Jesus, a Companion Children's Guide, and coloring page created by Katie Bogner.
