eating and being

Let’s talk about eating. They say that Filipinos eat only once a day. We eat only once a day. But, as the saying continues, it takes us a whole day to finish. What does that mean? We eat non-stop from the time we wake up until just before we sleep. We eat not just breakfast, lunch and dinner. We eat so many things in between. There’s the mid morning snacks, the mid-afternoon snacks and the midnight snacks not counting the mani, the kamonsil, the sirguelas, the maiz, the candies, the chippy, the cheese curls, the potato chips which we eat in our offices, while watching TV, in our cars, while riding on the jeepney, and even while waiting for a jeepney. It is true, we eat once a day but it takes us a whole day to finish.


Eating is us, especially Ilonggos. When visitors come to our house we can’t think of a better welcome than inviting our visitors to eat, and so our greetings are always jumbled up with invitations like, “ay kamusta na, long time no see, kapamahaw ka na?”
Eating seems to define us. Last time, when visitors came to the seminary without any warning, I became so panicky because we ran out of cooked rice. It would be such a great shame if we could not provide them something for lunch, and so by all means we have to. We always feel that people will judge us not so much by the way we dress, not so much by the beauty of our homes, but by how we feed our guests. That is why we could go to great lengths preparing for our fiestas even to the extent of borrowing money so that we can have something to feed our visitors, who by the way needed no invitation on days such as fiestas. Eating seems to define us for we reveal ourselves in the meals that we set, we reveal ourselves in the meals that we prepare, and we reveal ourselves in the meals that we eat.
I don’t really know if this attitude of ours has some similarity or connection to that of Jesus, or is it just coincidental. Our gospel today speaks of Jesus revealing himself once more in a meal, specifically by asking for a meal from the apostles. I said “once more” because this is the third time that our resurrected Lord appeared to his apostles in the context of a meal. And this is also the third time that the apostles recognized Jesus in the context of a meal, in the context of eating. So that he would be recognized by his disciples, Jesus ate with them. And he was always recognized by his disciples when he was eating with them. Eating seemed to define Jesus so much so that one could not miss him as him, one could not miss him as Jesus, as our Lord, when he eats and when he invites people to eat.
What are the implications of this realization?
First – the importance of our Sunday Eucharist. In early Christianity one of the name for Sundays is the day of apparitions. It is the day when the Lord appears. Sunday by the way is the day of he Eucharist – it is the day of communal meal and precisely they call Sunday the day of apparitions because they believe that Christ will appear in their midst when they celebrate the meal, Christ will appear in their midst when they gather for the meal. To be more exact it is called the day of apparitions because they hope that when they gather for the meal they will recognize Jesus among them. Not that Jesus would appear as if by magic, but that they would recognize him who is already in their midst. That recognition will be in and through the Eucharist that they celebrate.
The experience of the apostles when they gather with Jesus is always described with the words “he opened their minds, and “he opened their eyes” and also “they realized it was the Lord.”
Our gathering in this Eucharist should also produce the same effect. In the Eucharist our minds are opened. The Eucharist gives us the power to see things from a wider perspective, from a deeper perspective. It should open our eyes to look at things and events with the eyes of faith. In the Eucharist we are given the chance to see things and people differently – to see things and think things in a new way, because we have come to realize that Jesus is in our midst. This is what our Sunday Eucharist should bring us into – because when Jesus is in our midst things turn out differently . . . we become more hopeful and more trusting, more loving, and more forgiving. It is only in the Eucharist, in this meal, that we can realize that Jesus is in our midst and that things can be different when he is around.
Second – as Catholics, we seem to be defined by the Eucharist that we celebrate. Sa tuod-tuod lang kabudlay magsermon sa lubong sang tawo nga wala nagasimba. What do you expect me for example to say during my homily when you die? It is a sin to tell a lie, but it is even harder to tell the truth in your case. Gahibi na asawa mo, ukon kabataan mo, tapos mahambal ko da ya nga” ini nga tawo wala gid nagasimba.” Gani, simba man kamo ay, agod nga indi man ninyo mapabudlayan ang mga pari maghimo ukon maghimo-himo sang sermon pananglitan mapatay kamo kag ilubong.
But my point here is this: It seems that the first line of definition for being a catholic is the basic – he goes to mass, he receives Holy Communion. Without that basic definition nga nagasimba ka it seems very hard to define further your being a catholic. Indi bala? Kabudlay. Why because of our culture. We are defined by the meal we participate in, and so the Eucharist defines us as Catholics before anything else.
Whenever I go to a wake for example, the first thing that people seem to report to me about the person who died is, “nagsimba pa ni sia Padre sang Domingo, baw pala simba gid ni nga tawo.” Before we talked about his being a good father, a faithful husband and a dedicated worker, people seem to define us first by our participation in the Eucharist, kon nagasimba kita, kon palasimba kita. I am not saying that going to mass is enough in order to be a catholic. No it is not enough. Probably what I want to say is, if you don’t go to mass which is very basic and very elementary, it seems that I cannot put myself to believe that you can be anything better.
No this is not Catholic belief defined by the pope or the catechism. What I’m talking about is Filipino culture – the connection of our being and our eating, the connection between our being a catholic and our participation in the Eucharistic meal as its defining principle.
I do not know. But probably you can think about this deeper. Discuss this further among yourselves. But the major thing the gospel is talking about today is the connection between the meal and the revelation and recognition of Jesus. Jesus reveals himself first and foremost in the meal – the Eucharistic meal. And we recognize Jesus first and foremost in the meal, in the Eucharistic meal. Without the Eucharistic meal therefore it is difficult if not impossible to recognize Jesus further in our other human activities and relations. It is difficult if not impossible to recognize Jesus further in our other human activities and relations without first the Eucharistic Meal. It is difficult.