What the Table Demands.

“Be careful what you pray for.” It’s a caution we offer friends when we have a hunch that what they seek will prove more problematic than they imagined. I wonder if anyone offered such a caution to the crowds seeking Jesus. Did they really know whom they were seeking? What about the cost that actually finding him would demand?

Jesus seems to offer such a caution. “You seek me because you ate your fill of bread,” he says, and goes on to suggest that eating at his table will likely demand more than people expect. It’s a reminder to us as well.

Recently I was working with a group of people who were sharing their experience of contemplative prayer and the qualities that seemed to accompany it—calm, peace, and freedom. They appreciated these experiences and found themselves drawn all the more to this prayer. And yet in the course of the conversation, they asked themselves if these “feel good” qualities were really the end point. They wondered if peace and calm might be the origin of courage to do the difficult and whether freedom might give way to risk-taking for the sake of the common good. I think they are on to something.

There is a valuable “allure” to the decision to commit to Jesus as we meet him in the Gospels. Our hearts are awakened and our imaginations stirred at the prospect of knowing that the hungry are fed, the homeless are sheltered, the captives are freed. And yet what follows—and is needed—is the digging down deeply to the place of personal integrity, the discovery of the daily and often inconvenient tasks of discipleship.

Where in my own life do I see this courage and willingness to risk? How is the call of the Gospel taking root in the day-by-day choices of my life?

Sr. Pat Kozak. Taken from Give Us This Day.

Sr. Pat Kozak, CSJ, is a process facilitator and consultant for religious congregations across the United States and Canada.