If you really want to get to know someone, invite them to dinner. Sharing a meal with someone opens up the door to a deeper, more intimate, and more authentic encounter. When we gather around a table, we are more vulnerable and are reminded not only of our need for food and sustenance, but also the love of friends and community. We are meant to be together. Meals can be opportunities not only for authentic meetings, but for healing relationships, for understanding one another better, and for renewal. Jesus invites us to dine with him once again at today’s Eucharist. He receives our pain and blesses our wounds. We are forgiven, set straight, renewed, and reconfirmed in our task of discipleship. Love is celebrated here again. May we bring that love to those who need it most, especially those we may find difficult to love and to those who have hurt us. Share with them the bread of compassion and the wine of mercy.