Monday in the Twenty-Third Week of Ordinary Time

“Clear out the old yeast, so that you may become a fresh batch of dough” (1 Cor. 5:7). I was the head baker at Genesee for nearly 20 years. I know from experience that old yeast does not grow. I also know that overworked dough collapses in the oven. Fresh dough made with fresh ingredients produces a beautiful loaf. The smell of the bread coming out of the oven took me back to my childhood, Millbrook Bakery on the west side of Cleveland, Chambers Bakery in my old neighborhood, and, of course, my mom’s kitchen. Breaking open a loaf of bread, steamy and hot right out of the oven brought back memories of family, joy, and love. “Authentic spirituality should be like freshly baked bread coming out of the oven: a totally immersive experience, no description necessary or possible.  Every powerful encounter with the divine is like that, enveloping us, dissolving our “normal” sense of separateness, revealing—if only for a moment—our oneness with God, with one another and the whole Creation” (Pastor David Anderson).

Through baptism, we have been made one with Christ, the Bread of Life. Like Christ, we are to be blessed and broken for the life of the world. In the celebration of the Eucharist. At the Table of the Lord, we are shown what love truly is, and we receive the grace that enables us to imitate the love that Christ shows us. Every time we partake of the Sacred Eucharist, we take into our hands the Bread of Heaven that was baked in the fire of the Holy Spirit. As we enter into this sacramental encounter, let us allow ourselves to meet Christ at the door of the oven. “Our life of faith begins when we humbly welcome Jesus into our lives, make room for Him, listen to His Word, and allow ourselves to be questioned, challenged, and changed by it” (Pope Francis in Indonesia).