If you could receive Eucharist via a drive through window at church all the time, would you do so?
I could see the advertisement campaign already. “Fast Food Jesus, the quickest, most nourishing food in town.” For college students: “Hung over from the night before? Not looking your Sunday best? No one will see you and you can still tell your parents you went to church without lying. ” Or hashtag: #Drive through Jesus – Dine and Dash Discipleship…”
If you are slightly (or more than slightly) scandalized by these notions, then perhaps that is a good thing. You should be, by my suggesting such a thing. But I had a conversation this past week – the “I’m spiritual but not religious” one – and in a moment of insight I realized what I should have asked next. Unfortunately it was after the conversation was over and the person had headed home, I realized the question I needed to ask was this one: “So if you could do drive through communion, you’d do it in a heart beat, wouldn’t you? Though I don’t know his answer, I’d suspect for him and for more than a few people, this would be the best of all worlds. They could maximize their time on the weekends – make sure they take care of their family obligation to bring the kids to “mass’ in 5 minutes, and not be late for the BBQ or trip to the pool or 9 am tee time.
Though it sounds ludicrous, I wonder if sometimes that is exactly our attitude. I wonder if we have fallen prey to our insatiable appetite for food quickly prepared, quickly consumed and quickly forgotten? I took a look at my own behavior and realized that just this past week, I ate three of my meals while multi-tasking – answering mail in one, preparing for a meeting in the second, and on the run in my car as I was driving. I suspect I am not alone in this behavior. So note to self and those in the same boat: GOD DOES NOT SERVE FAST FOOD TO SOLITARY INDIVIDUALS AT THIS TABLE. God does not serve fast food at this table.
If you listened to today’s gospel closely, no less than THREE TIMES would you have heard about the preparations for this meal. Notice how careful were the preparations and instructions that Jesus gave to his disciples as he prepared them for THIS SPECIAL MEAL. Not any house, but this one. Not any room, but the upper room. Not any upper room, but a guest room, large, spacious – ready to receive folks into its embrace. Jesus was not preparing the disciples for fast food on this night. It is an unhurried feast, by an unhurried host – who desires that we connect with him on the deepest levels – not at some fast food pace and superficial level.
THIS IS MY BODY. THIS IS MY BLOOD, given FOR THE MANY. This is all I am and hope and want to be for you – given here around this altar. And to partake of it means that you, too, are committed to THE MANY. You too, are bound, not just to a fast food window and minimal connection, but to the sharing of life that this meal symbolizes. And, as St. Augustine wrote, if it is true that we become what we receive, then our Lord wants nothing more than to share Himself with us.
Imagine you threw a party for someone’s 25th wedding anniversary. What would it be like if the couple came in, just as the food was being served? What if they WAVED hello to everyone, said a brief word of thanks on the P.A., got in line, grabbed their food and headed out the door? You’d all be terribly offended. You didn’t come for them to dash and dine. What you came for was connection and communion.
Which is exactly what our Lord comes for each Sunday. To connect with you. And to foster those connections among you with each other.
So, let me give you TWO CHALLENGES:
1st – just monitor your eating patterns this week. How often do you dash and dine? Or multitask? How does your ‘meal pattern’ influence THIS MEAL PATTERN?
2nd – On a scale of 1-10 high, this is a 1.2 for me, but a concern I have for you. In my former parish, we called it ST. ANN TIME. That meant if mass started at 11 a.m., that was the time you left your house. We are not as bad here. AND YET, there are more than a few folks delayed by those pesky traffic lights at Lindbergh or Sappington that you never make. How will you ever learn to slow down enough for what this meal asks of you when your consistent pattern is to arrive when this Eucharist is going in full swing… You are always going, going, going. There’s never a moment of stillness needed for that communion.
Dine and Dash Jesus? I don’t think so. Communion from a drive through window? Not what Jesus had in mind! May it not be our practice, either!