October 1st, 2017
Embracing the Spirit of…..yeast
He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.” Matthew 13:33 (NRSV)
This parable allows us to see the mysterious power of the Gospel in everyday life. When the yeast is introduced to the dough, it violently changes the physical state of the dough to create something new and unprecedented. It rises with a new form and a new purpose. The same can be said about the love God shows us. Its work in our lives is almost imperceptible at times, but changes us in profound ways.
In the Caribbean, we cannot understate the violence of the conquistadores and the way they sowed the “Newfoundland” with their crops and way of life. They filled the fields with wheat, in places where the indigenous communities already had their sown their crops of yucca, corn, and sweet potatoes. The conquistadores planted thinking only of their own needs and not taking into consideration a whole myriad of pre-existing cultures and foods that were part of the native landscape. That was just on of the many ways in which the European powers imposed their culture on the Caribbean, as well as in the rest of Latin America. Today, most recipes in the Caribbean combine the products of Europe with the native Caribbean crops in the way that demonstrates resistance and melting of culture and diversity.
On this World Communion Sunday, the materials we are sharing with brothers and sisters in Christ, will guide us to return to the original, radical message of the Eucharist. The Parable of the Great Dinner (Luke 14:15-22) and the Parable of the Wedding Banquet (Matthew 22:1-14), give us examples of breaking norms and rules of a concrete economic and cultural system and allow us to shift into openness, compassion, generosity, and welcome to all humans and creatures in Creation. The proposal is to surrender our haciendas, our private places, closed by privilege and domination, and to fill our stomachs with the reality of the other, letting the yeast of the Gospel transform us from the logic of retaining to one of offering. This alternative implies a society governed by a different symbolic order, not only by another law. It is about a permanent re-evolution of love, understanding, and care.
¡Bienvenidos y bienvenidas a la Mesa del Señor!
Welcome to the table of God!
Resource: PDF File