Road Trip

Taking food for the journey

Exodus 12:1-3, 11

           The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, “This month shall stand at the head of your calendar; you shall reckon it the first month of the year. Tell the whole community of Israel: On the tenth of this month every one of your families must procure for itself a lamb, one apiece for each household.

“This is how you are to eat it:  with your loins girt, sandals on your feet and your staff in hand, you shall eat like those who are in flight. It is the Passover of the LORD.

            Americans instinctively love to travel.  Have you taken a road trip this summer to the beach or to the mountains?  We have highways that stretch from coast to coast for our traveling pleasure.  Heck, we’ve even traveled to the moon, and now we’re packing our suitcases for a trip to Mars.  Now, what’s the most essential part of any great trip?  Food, of course!  And everyone has their personal favorite snacks for the road.  One friend of mine loves peanut M&Ms.  Other people love trail mix.  Do you know what my favorite traveling food is?  It’s gift cards!  Man, they taste good.  That way I can stop in any number of restaurants which all serve my favorite food, free food.  We Americans can’t wait to take a road trip, and one of the first things we think of is food for the journey.

            In the first reading today, God wants the Israelites to be a little more like us Americans.  How so?  Well, he wants them to think about food for the journey.  But the Chosen People are not taking a road trip to the Rockies or Orange Beach or even to the moon; they’re going to the Promised Land.  And what is their food for the journey?  Not peanut M&Ms, not trail mix, not gift cards, but roasted lamb.  God says: “This is how you are to eat it: with your loins girt, sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand, you shall eat like those who are in flight.”  In other words, God knows that the most essential part of any road trip is food for the journey, and so he teaches his people how to pack when you take a road trip to the Promised Land: you eat lamb.

            My friends, let me suggest to you that every road trip you have ever taken is just a symbol or a snap shot of the ultimate road trip to the eternal Promised Land, namely, heaven.  That is, our whole life is but a road trip that lasts 80, or 90, or 100 years.  And what the best food for this journey?  It’s Lamb!  The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, and which we receive every time we come to Mass.  Maybe that’s why some people come to Communion and leave immediately afterwards.  They say, “Fr. John said this is food for the journey, so I guess I better get on the road!”  That’s not what that means.

            Do you know what Viaticum is?  It’s part of the “Last Rites” when a dying person receives Holy Communion for the last time.  “Viaticum” comes from Latin and literally means, “take on road with you,” on the road to that “undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns,” as Hamlet said.  And what’s the only food that will help you complete that journey to the heavenly Promised Land?  It’s Lamb, the Lamb we receive in Holy Communion.  The most important part of any road trip is food for the journey.  On your very last road trip, you better take some Lamb.

            Praised be Jesus Christ!