The Gospels and The Sopranos (Easter Friday)

Friday, April 17th, 2020

The Gospels remind me in a certain way of The Sopranos: there is so much eating! Even with the Resurrection accounts, Jesus has eaten with them before, and here they are eating again! As soon as they came ashore they saw that there was some bread there, and a charcoal fire with fish cooking on it. Jesus said, ‘Bring some of the fish you have just caught.’ ...Jesus said to them, ‘Come and have breakfast.’

One thing this tells us is the importance of the human body. You’d think that the problem with the Western world at the moment is that we love the body too much. On the contrary: our terrible curse at the moment is that we don’t love our body enough. I mean, this is a real question: can I have a shower, and love my body as it is? Or do I hate it, is it a nuisance, a cumbersome thing which doesn’t reflect my heart? 

One thing Jesus tells us here is that, whatever we or others think - he, he loves our body. Jesus doesn’t just have prayer sessions: he feeds the apostles! Clearly, he cares about, loves their bodies. This is part of the freedom of the children of God. I don’t have to shape or sculpt or starve anything. Sure, God wants me to take care of myself - but this is part of loving my body also. Not so I become someone else. But so I am myself, well and happy, at peace with myself.

Let us pray:

Almighty ever-living God,

who gave us the Paschal Mystery

in the covenant you established

for reconciling the human race,

so dispose our minds, we pray,

that what we celebrate by professing the faith

we may express in deeds.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.