Taste and See

Dear Friend,

What’s striking to me about our readings for this Sunday is the way that God’s goodness is compared to the flavor of food. “Taste and see,” writes the psalmist. I ask myself: What could be more basic to our experience of being alive, our sense of well-being, and of our particular culture - whatever it may be - than the flavor of food? My brother friars of Italian background, no doubt echoing the voice of their mothers, say Mangia! EAT!

How jarring then that, in this Sunday’s parable, the banquet food - the “fatted calf” - which the father offers the “prodigal” son upon his return home is repulsive to the older brother. As the parable ends, this offended brother is facing his father in anger, refusing to go in, sit down at a table with his fellow guests and taste and see. As the story ends, we’re left in suspense -- will he break down and finally go in? As with the parable of the fig tree last week, we’re left in suspense. Will the fig tree bear fruit next year? 

What comes to my mind is the aroma of good food. It must have been wafting from the kitchen where the banquet was being prepared. As disciples of Jesus Christ, our loving God is as close to us as that. In the gospel which we will hear at the 9 am Mass with our candidates and catechumen, Jesus addresses our sight and how to set it right - to see clearly who he is. Our Lenten conversion is aimed at all our senses. Anger, fear, and resentments can cloud them. Harden not your heart, says the psalm, and I would add: let’s come to our senses!

Gratefully,

Fr. Dan ofm, Pastor