Room at the Table: on Christ the King Sunday and Harvest Thanksgiving

Soon and very soon, we will load our dining tables with baskets of bread and butter, Indian corn, and cranberry sauce. We will have turkey meat and mashed potatoes with gravy. We will dine on pumpkin pies and whipped cream or hot chocolate and creamed coffee. Perhaps we might have a steaming bowl of beef porridge with Chinese donuts. Maybe an extra large bowl of pho noodles with tripe and brisket. In whatever way we celebrate Thanksgiving, most of us will not fret about whether or not we will be fed, be clothed, be warmed. We will surely appreciate the abundance of food that will nourish our bodies, and we will certainly feast on the laughter, joy, and conversations in the presence of family and friends around the table.

Yet, as we move towards Thanksgiving, as we await the celebratory feasting, let us not forget that there are those who hunger. Starve. Those with empty stomachs growling as they line up at soup kitchens and food pantries in the cold Bay Area weather. Are there those around us who desire something more? Where we are now, who are the people in need of "something to eat, drink, or wear" (Mt 6:25 CEV)? Matthew 6:32 reminds us that "only people who don't know God are always worrying about such things".

If we examine this statement from our self-focused point of view, then we might frame the clause in this way: I worry about this and this and this, therefore I don't know God. That is a worrisome conclusion, indeed. Today, let us hear the invitation in a different way: People to whom we have not shown signs of God's love and mercy and grace might always worry about such things as this or this or that...

This Sunday is Christ the King Sunday, which is a major feast day in the Christian calendar, a day when we celebrate the just and merciful reign of God. Regardless of the diverse definitions and interpretations for the "kingship" of Jesus our Christ, this day should remind us to answer the invitation -- meet the challenge -- which we have been given as children of God and a community of faith: As we feast and dine with abundant thanks, how do we embody God's reign of peace, justice and love? How do we exemplify love, joy, peace to those around us? How do we help "people who don't know God" to worry less, to be clothed and fed, to be filled and warmed? Because doing that is bringing the reign of God into reality.

Perhaps there are those who hunger and worry because they need us to embody God to them, now. Perhaps there are those just waiting for us to show God's love in concrete ways that help them remember God. In this coming week, seriously consider the invitation for you to make room at the table...

Let us then continue united in prayer and faith, and realize more nd more the truth and mercy of God in our lives. For we are called above all to be signs of His mercy in the world, and our fidelity will in its turn be a small sign to others of His fidelity, not that our fidelity has nay value of itself, but it enables Him to give us richer blessings and to manifest Himself in doing good to us who are nothing. - Thomas Merton, The School of Charity, Pg. 261-262