Friday, March 14
Show Up At the Table, Casey Murano (2024).
If you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. (Mt 5:23-24)
Following Jesus’ commands to repair relationships swiftly seems irrational. Real Presence is beyond logic and reason, and so is 3.14159265359…, that mysterious number we celebrate today.
Pi and Eucharist and the way of Jesus Christ lead us to the infinite and universal, but encountering this vastness is a journey that unfolds and deepens in confusing ways.
For example, I recently expressed a concern with good intention—that damaged relationships.
Seeing the agony of my friend and knowing I caused harm was painful. When the unintended consequences first came to light, my body cried and quaked in the chapel, broken open.
The first step: letting go of the need to be right. I turned to the tabernacle and asked Jesus for forgiveness. I was surprised to find not shame or admonition, but a quiet anchoring within myself. I left the chapel with the courage to make repairs.
What followed was a curious time. I encountered stories and images, conversation partners and wisdom to guide me through turbulent waters. I discovered grace and mercy in my heart: even if I didn’t act perfectly, I still had done my best. I found empathy and a greater capacity to hear the perspectives of my brothers, and an increased capacity to love and hold nuance.
Perhaps Jesus demands us to leave the altar and be with our brother of concern so that upon returning to the space of prayer, we can participate in the gift more fully. Mysteriously enough, it is through our messy yet beautiful lived experiences we come to more deeply understand and honor the irrational, infinite, universal gift of the ever-widening circle that is the Body of Christ.
Casey Murano is an interdisciplinary visual artist whose creative practice explore themes of pilgrimage. She is currently based at Bethlehem Farm, an intentional Catholic community in Appalachia.
You can find out more about her here.