Life is short. Smile while you still have teeth. July 18, 2024

Having participated in multiple funerals during the last three weeks, I found myself at a funeral luncheon sitting next to a grandfather holding his seven-month old grandson, named Brendan. The little child reached out to me and held my hand. No fear in his beautiful blue eyes and, without a tooth in his mouth, he smiled and giggled as his grandfather placed him in my arms. I was quickly drawn into his innocence and total disregard for death.

Nestling into my arms, Brendan continued to smile and did not seem to notice the tears running down my face. I had seen so much death in the last few weeks that I was startled by this joyful invitation to life. Having just buried his ninety-one-year-old great grandmother, I entered into an awareness of the preciousness of the life I held in my arms, and the fragility of a life I had just buried.

By some standards, “life is short” and the early advice of the Caribou Coffee manufacturers was, “Life is short, so stay awake for it.” I had to laugh when I thought of an appendage that someone added to the slogan: “Life is short. Smile while you still have teeth.” Looking down at Brendan I thought, “You don’t have a tooth in your head or a care in the world and you are the happiest of all creatures.” I thought of a quaint old Irish Blessing: “May your worries be as far apart and as few as your grandmother’s teeth.” Rediscovering laughter amid grief came easily to Brendan’s family who, despite the circumstances of death, clearly opted for a joyful commitment to life and the practicality of change.

The gospel for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Mark 6:30-34, is paralleled in the gospels of Matthew 14:13-21 and in the gospel of Luke 9:10-16. All three gospels tell of the disciples return from their first healing mission and the desire to take Jesus up on his offer, “Come away by yourselves to a lonely place, and rest awhile.” The invitation to “rest awhile” prefigured Jesus compassion for the large crowds who followed him and the disciples. When Jesus and the disciples were entrapped by the large crowds (so much for the R & R promised), “He had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.”

Recognizing the predicament of nightfall and a hungry crowd, Jesus extended the opportunity to the disciples “To give them something to eat.” The practicality of feeding 5,000 men plus the women and children was a logistic nightmare for the disciples who, in their frustration, turned to Jesus and said: “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread (equivalent to hundreds of dollars today) and give it to them to eat?”

Bypassing his disciples solution to the problem, Jesus scrounged up five loaves of bread and two fish, blessed the bread and fish, and had the disciples deliver the meal to the hungry crowd. It is essential to note that Jesus insisted that the disciples feed the crowd in spite of their skeptical thinking. The miracle of the loaves and fishes finds its place in the gospel of John  (6:1-15), as well as in the Synoptic gospels. In all four accounts, “All ate and were satisfied. And after the meal, the disciples picked up twelve baskets full of broken pieces of bread and fish.”

The involvement of the disciples actually feeding the crowd is noted in all four gospels and the picking up of the twelve baskets of leftovers could be construed as an active participation of the disciples in preparing for the Eucharist. While the “Last Supper” would be the official place of the institution of the Eucharist, except in the gospel of John, Jesus would give the disciples the courage to ”feed the hungry” in spite of their doubts.

In the early Christian community, the Eucharist was not a “one person show,” but more like a “potluck” dinner where members of the community gathered together to eat, drink, and proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes (1 Corinthians 11:17-34). The communal aspect of the gathering seemed to imply that all were responsible for the “blessing” of the bread and wine. The recognition of the risen Christ was more easily understood in the actual gathering of the community than in the bread and wine. Building up a community of faith prior to the distribution of bread and wine in the early Church was a critical factor in the creating the liturgy of the Eucharist.

The evolution of the mass was contingent upon the organization of the community of faith and the respect shone to one another. The Body of Christ was and remains a respectful group of believers who have learned to share the Real Presence of Jesus Christ among them. The ecumenical implications of this understanding offers hope, even amid the cynicism of competing partisan agendas and self-serving power plays. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians (2:13-18) offers hope in abolishing the dividing walls of various religious communities. Paul claims that “Jesus is our peace; in his flesh he has made both Jews and Gentiles into one and has broken down the dividing wall, which is the hostility between us.”

Christ would embody the source of unity in his death and resurrection and ridding the world of the hostilities that previously divided humankind. Jesus would make real the metaphor of “one shepherd, one flock.” Finding this sense of “oneness” in the Eucharist would be ideal and finding an open invitation to the table would give credence to Jesus’ feeding of the five thousand without having to check out if all were worthy of being fed.

Indeed, life is short, so stay awake for it and smile while you still have teeth. Maintaining a sense of humor and balance amid the turbulence of the world, bouts of exacerbating clericalism and political uncertainties is no easy feat. A bulletin announcement in front of a local church read: “Don’t let worry or stress kill you. Let the Church help.” Unintended humor might be the best remedy for any institution in search of salvation. Jesus invited his disciples to “come and rest awhile,” so why don’t we make the time to rest from the insane stressors of everyday life? If we intend to lead happy lives, we need to retreat from the insane stresses of everyday life. Yes, life is short, and we need to stay awake for it, but I was envious of Brendan who was sound asleep in my arms when I handed him over to his mother.

As I grow older, I am learning to do this more easily, especially when I reflect upon Pope John XXIII’s nighttime prayer:

               “Well, God, I did my best. It’s your Church, so, I am going to bed now.”

Peace, Fr. Joe Gillespie, O.P.