Chef JP

 

Guess who?

St Teresa of Avila wrote:  "Know that even when you are in the kitchen, our Lord moves amidst the pots and pans".   As I sit through another. heady church discussion on community, I think, "How true".   

We talk forever about themes like community from on high, going nowhere.  I think - Is it not better to stand grounded on terra firma and go from there?   From that perspective, looking at community from the grassroots, the focus is on human friendship and relationships, the nitty-gritty of life.  The challenge is then placed on depthing one's everyday relationships within the context of the sacred, which is at the core of human existence.  Thus, in striving for community, with this mindset in place, we are pursuing a goal that is at the one time truly human and truly divine.  Does this not speak of who we are as church?  

Instead, we so easily idealise life, making it much more difficult and unworldly than it needs to be.  Religion is for both this world and beyond, not just for another life and another time.  Our passion for the deeper, for good, for truth and justice, for union with others and so with God - it all begins here and now, in the midst of who we are and where we are.  

As one may have a passion for cooking, so one may have a passion for life and much more - the divine.  God is found amongst the pots and pans, just as readily as anywhere else.   .

As St Augustine put it -  "When you are all things in all, you will be our common possession, our common peace, our rest, our joy".