Living Catholicism: "Yes, I'll take a Happy Meal, please..."

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September 30, 2004

"Yes, I'll take a Happy Meal, please..."

In our busy world it is often easy to forget the value of eating together as a family. We want to watch TV, we are working on a report for work, we are working on homework, or we would rather eat by ourselves. We rationalize that the most important thing is that we actually consume some food since that is ultimately what really matters...but is it?

What is the significance of the meal? Of course, the "bread" we consume is of the utmost importance. It sustains us and strengthens our bodies, but what does it do for our souls?

To understand this we must do something distinctly Catholic. We must look at the individual act from both the temporal and eternal perspectives. From the physical perspective we are strengthened and nourished by the actual food itself, but from the eternal, or spiritual, perspective we are also feed by our unity as a family or our "communion" as a family. This is most perfectly displayed in the Mass. We go to Mass every Sunday to be fed by the Word and the Eucharist, yet what makes that spiritual nourishment complete is the fact that when we receive our Lord in the Eucharist we are in "communion" with those around us and the universal Church as well. It is in the act of coming together and receiving our Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament that we live out our unity as the Mystical Body of Christ. Even if we are the only person, other than the priest, to receive communion we are still in union with the Universal Church. Of course, an obvious difference between the Mass and family meal time must be made, in that when we receive Jesus in the Eucharist we are fed both spiritually and physically.

The home is the "domestic church." What is true and good in the divine order must also be true and good for the temporal order. Meal time is when the family comes together to thank God for His goodness, to be physically nourished, and to celebrate and live the unity of the domestic church. This is the fundamental reality that is necessary for the Catholic family, and all families, to consider and to imitate. This is how we become Christ's Body on earth. Our Faith permeates every aspect of our lives.

In the Catholic Church, the celebration of the Eucharist is "the source and summit of the Christian life" (CCC 1324, pg. 334). In the home, meal time should be the source and summit of the domestic life for it incorporates the essential aspects of life - prayer, nourishment, and communion.

As a child, my parents made a point of our family (all 8 of us) eating dinner together as a family. It was a time of pause, of communion, and of joy. Most of my memories of dinner time are happy memories. I don't remember what the food tasted like, but I do remember the stories our father told, the news our mother shared about family and friends, the jokes my brothers or sister told, and, most importantly, the sacredness of our time together as a family.

I strongly encourage all of you to really try to make your meal time a special time, a time of coming together. That's the recipe for the ultimate "Happy Meal."

Posted by HolyFamily at September 30, 2004 11:29 AM