My family and I love spending time around the table – gathering for family dinners and, most especially, competing in family game nights. Never would we dream of passing up Scrabble, Trivial Pursuit, Pictionary, Scattergories, you name it! But let’s face it...when we try to balance the schedules of two parents, three boys, and countless commitments, time around the table frequently gets bumped off the scale. As I prepared for Ash Wednesday this year, I was ready to give up chocolate and potato chips, but felt called to do something more. Since September, I have been lamenting the fact that my family has been spending less and less time together around the table. When the bus brings the boys home at
4pm, CCD is in full swing by 5pm, basketball practice tips off at 6pm, the Boy Scout flag ceremony begins at 7pm, and homework is squeezed in sometime in between, my idyllic family dinners and game nights have become more of an exception than the rule. This Lent, I vowed to gather my family around the table more often than not.
Never would I have imagined what God had in store for my Lenten resolution. We’re facing a global pandemic and consequently an unprecedented Lent. School is closed, activities are postponed, Scouts and baseball are on hold, and even public Mass is cancelled. Anxiety is sky high for me and yet I see the blessings that God is giving to me amidst the challenges. My table has become a gathering place like never before. Here we eat and play, we homeschool and work from home, we laugh and cry. I’ve added Home Economics to our homeschooling rotation and I’m finding great joy in teaching my boys how to cook – not only passing on the traditional family recipes we hold dear, but also adding in some
competitions, Chopped style, with the mystery ingredients of our pantry. Frustrations can abound and yet so do silver linings around the dark clouds. We’re bonding together as a family, for better or for worse, like never before.
When I listen to today’s Gospel, I am reminded that Jesus too enjoyed time around the table with His friends. We know that Martha cooked for Him and Mary listened to His teachings; I imagine Lazarus spent many evenings talking and laughing with Jesus. When Martha and Mary confronted Jesus after their brother Lazarus had died, Jesus saw the tears in the sisters’ eyes and the pain in their hearts. He “became perturbed and deeply troubled” and, upon reaching His friend’s tomb, “Jesus wept.” Jesus, fully divine, is also fully human. He understands love, comfort, friendship. He equally understands pain, grief, and loss. This Lent, perhaps more than ever, the humanity of Jesus resonates with me. Jesus wept with His friends in times of sorrow; He weeps with our world today in the face of crisis. Because He understands pain and suffering first hand, we can turn to Him at any time. He will comfort us, as He did Mary and Martha. He will work miracles in our lives when we put our trust in Him and profess, like Martha, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God...”
Jesus also understands isolation. His disciples deserted Him in his darkest hour. He felt abandoned by His Father on the Cross. He endured the isolation of death itself. We are experiencing isolation in so many ways right now – social distancing, working from home, distance learning, and even remote worshipping via livestream. Never would I have imagined that we would give up the Eucharist this Lent. I realize now how much I took the Eucharist for granted in the past. Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice for us; this Lent, we follow, sacrificing the Sacred Meal to benefit the greater good. In the midst of my longing for the Eucharist, though, I again feel God giving me strength and grace around my family table, until the day comes when we can gather around the Table of the Lord.
My ongoing lesson in all of this...Never will I give up on Jesus. As our Psalm for today reminds me, “I trust in the LORD; my soul trusts in His word.” I don’t know how this crisis will play out, but I trust that God does. In these unparalleled times of anxiety and uncertainty, Jesus calls us to trust in Him, just as Mary, Martha, and Lazarus did. He calls us now to gather around our tables, share the family dinners, play the board games, appreciate our loved ones, and believe that God will see us through this. God’s love and protection are greater than we can imagine. Jesus calls us to trust that one day our schedules will be full again, with work, school, sports, and activities, and we will rejoice in the chaos. For now, though we must rejoice in the knowledge that our God is with us. Never will He leave us alone.