A Divine Door Dash?

We love going out to eat.  Most people do. Afterall, who wants to menu plan and cook when you can have someone else do that for you!?  My wife and I looking for and trying new restaurants. Searching to find the best dive bar for chicken wings or a hole-in-the-wall place with the best burgers.  If we could, we would eat out most days of the week.  This is especially true now in this busy fall season—as we are chauffeuring and shuttling kids all over the place for cross country meets, field hockey practices, and football games.  As our parental uber responsibilities take us all around the northern part of the state, it is especially seductive to look at the local restaurants.  Even more so when we can have them Door Dash a meal right to the sidelines of whatever field we are at!  (Man are we a spoiled nation!)  Unfortunately, we can’t afford to do this.  The funds only go so far.  The gift cards eventually run out. Eating via Door Dash is not sustainable; and truth be told it is probably not very healthy either.
 
As we were driving home last night, from a late-night football game in Rockaway, my stomach was grumbling like crazy.  My sone and me were hungry.  I drove past a number of restaurants that looked good. I thought to myself as we passed each one, “If only I had a gift card for that place right now.  Or a rich uncle…”  That would definitely solve the problem. I wouldn’t hesitate to stop.  It is always nice when someone else pays the bill. When a gift is given so that you can enjoy a tasty meal.  You can sit back, relax, and order all sorts of things from cocktails to appetizers to desserts, not worrying about what it will cost in the end. If only…
 
This is the beautiful story of the Gospel. 
A gift given. A debt paid. A problem solved.
​Even a meal provided. 
 
Every Sunday morning, we are invited to come out and dine at the table of our Lord where we are reminded that He has paid the ultimate price for us.  He has covered all the expenses. “This is my body, given for you.” “This is my true blood, shed for you.” With these grace-giving words, God satisfies a need that no other food can placate and a hunger that no restaurant fulfil.  Jesus fits the bill. All of it. For each of us.  He is far greater than a rich uncle; He is our redeemer and deliverer.  This is good news indeed. This mysterious meal is the means by which God delivers the healing fruits of His Gospel into the hearts and lives of all who kneel at the altar. This is where heaven and earth collide each week in a sacramental meal that points us to our eternal place at God’s heavenly banquet table. This meal puts an end to the grumbling of the soul, so that we can rejoice in the priceless meals of paradise. 
 
Forget the unhealthy fast-food; this is powerful, salvific faith-food. 
The restaurants will have to wait.
You can Door Dash another day.
Welcome to the Lord’s Table. 
Come, eat, and be satisfied! 
 
Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst… I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” (John 6:35, 51)