Today, let’s focus on the Lord’s instruction to the parents
to give food to the girl. Commands of this sort are very common in the four
gospels, and we can see something deeply, psychologically meaningful in them.
Human beings seek food for corporal and spiritual comfort, and eating something
helps us to feel grounded in the present moment and to achieve emotional
stability. We see this in today’s gospel, since the parents of the dead girl
are very astonished and disturbed as well, on account of the resurrection of
their daughter, and the Lord Jesus uses food to calm the situation and restore
their awareness. We always think of
trouble and suffering as traumas to our psyche, but even good and wonderful
occurrences can give us unease, just as we saw in the gospel last week, when
the people of the Gerasene region were filled with fear on account of the cure
of the demonized man, and they begged the Lord Jesus to leave their territory.
Food helps us to recover our lost composure, just as we saw in the one hundred
and third psalm, “Wine that cheers the human heart, oil that makes the human
face shine, and bread that strengthens the human heart.” Food and drink have a
direct effect on human hearts.
Many passage in Holy Scripture show us this truth that the
Lord gives His people nourishment for more than physical reasons. Food and
banquets are the occasions, by which the Lord reveals His most profound
mysteries. For example, in the context of a supper with Abraham and his wife
Sarah, the Lord God revealed the promise of the miraculous birth of Isaac.
Later, by means of a supper, Patriarch Joseph, the ruler of all of Pharaoh’s
property and the entire country of Egypt, prepared to reveal his identity to
his brothers, the other sons of Jacob. Also, in the book of Proverbs, the
fulfillment of all the good things, which Divine Wisdom has in store for the
human race, is described as a banquet, to which all the wise are invited. The
Prophet Isaiah also tells us that the Kingdom of Heaven is a banquet, which the
Lord will prepare on His Holy Mountain in the coming age.
In the New Testament, the Lord Jesus continues this theme,
which He, the Eternal Word of God, revealed in the Old Testament. In fact, He
even “doubles down” on the theme of nourishment for not only the physical, but
also the spiritual and psychological comfort of the human race. Again and
again, food is the instrument, by which God shows us that He loves and cares
for us. We should remember that the
Kingdom of Heaven is often portrayed as a banquet in the pages of the New
Testament. In the context of a banquet, the Lord Jesus sanctifies marriage,
transforming water into wine, and at a supper, He forgave all the sins of the
sinful woman. Later, in the context of the most solemn banquet, He revealed the
mystery of His Body and Blood.
All of this care and loving kindness is the work of a Being,
Who doesn’t need to eat, but all His goodness is accommodation and
condescension, since He knows our weakness and thus He expresses Himself in a
way that we can understand. God always works in this manner, and we should
meditate on it and take it as our example, since it is God’s desire that we
become like Him. This is the essence of the commandment, “Be perfect as your
Heavenly Father is perfect.” We have to be especially aware of the importance
of food and drink in the lives of others. Becoming like God means that we
should be careful concerning the virtue of hospitality, recognizing that it
applies to all in some measure. In other
words, when we are aware of the way that God cares for us, we should not
tolerate the presence of hunger around us, either corporal or spiritual.
There are many ways that we can practice the virtue of
hospitality even without opening our homes, since that, which the practice of
this virtue really requires is the opening of our hearts. Frustration is
inherent in human nature, because our understanding, knowledge and resources
will always be limited. But, our will, that is, our ability to love will always
be unlimited, and it is able to embrace our neighbors, even our whole world.
There are many people, even in our own community, who need our mercy and help.
We must think about them first, before we think about our own needs. It is an
ancient custom in our Church to give alms during the fast period with a special
intensity. This is very good, but we should recognize as well the needs that
are nearest and most personal to us. Seek good that you can do. If we make this
our rule, we will not run out of good that we can accomplish, but Christ
Himself will help us, and our relationship with Him will grow.
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