FAITHFUL FOOD
Gratus By Kim Long
“Behold, I am making all things new.” Revelation 21
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Joanne Sigler’s Bereavement Bean Salad
n our “post-modern” secular driven Ingredients: society it is even more difficult • 2 cans regular cut green beans to be, as St. Paul tells us, “in the • 1 can LeSuer English peas world but not of the world;” - more • 1 can baby lima beans difficult to live the life of a believer. • Small jar pimento beans Gratitude... I seldom see it • ⅔ cup salad oil coming. And let me tell you I • ⅓ cup tarragon vinegar absolutely didn’t see it this time. It • 1 tsp. salt crept up on my blind side and hit me • ½ tsp. Paprika over the head. • Pepper to taste The church was pretty full, especially for a funeral Directions: these days. The cantor 1. Drain beans and pimento and place in bowl got us on our feet and 2. Combine salad oil, tarragon vinegar, salt, paprika and pepper we began almost with 3. Pour over beans and gently combine automation, singing 4. Cover and chill until ready to serve the time-worn verses Long of “Amazing Grace;” its everyone who was full of comfort has returned to work. phrases and comforts sealed in my The house can seem too empty and quiet. Perhaps this is heart since childhood. I watched as the family struggled down the aisle in varying stages of numbness and raw grief. why we lingered, first in the vestibule, then down the steps and finally in the Parish Hall where some food awaited the As the reader that day I whispered a prayer: “Please family and friends. God let them hear you and not me.” The Mass of the In the coming days, I will hold this family in prayer Resurrection was moving right along. Time now for the and for the first time in my life, I will pray for everyone Liturgy of the word. The First Reading posed no problem, an easy “two-pointer:” the Psalm, a favorite, sounded fresh who is going through this, that they feel the healing touch on my ears and I seemed to really hear it for the first time. of God. I am sincerely thankful for the many times I have felt His touch in my own life. I chose the Second Reading as a safe bet - a lesser-known Driving home I thought how gratitude had come into passage from Revelation. Looking up I caught sight of my play with this funeral. It wasn’t that I was grateful “it friend who was grappling with the loss of her husband and wasn’t happening to me,” for as brothers and sisters in best friend. I faltered. Glancing up from the text my eyes rested on his daughters. I stumbled a second time. The rest Christ, each death affects us on some level. I was suffused with gratitude that I responded to God’s invitation to the of the words caught in my throat and I breathed deeply. Catholic faith and its particular way of life; grateful that I Finishing up, my reading bouncing off the rim, merely had taken time from my busy schedule to be present in a passable. Returning to the ambo for the intercessions, I felt, and small way to this family at this difficult time. I am grateful not for the first time that day, tears pricking my eyes. Soon my path is laid out; that from baptism to the celebration of life in the world to come we are guided by, among other I was back in my seat, the song for the preparation of gifts things, the liturgy which I see today so clearly, as alive and reminding me that God is truly my stronghold and I shall breathing life into us. not be afraid at all. And I do not believe I am afraid, but Behold we are all being made anew. neither am I ready to look my own mortality in the face and if I am honest, for the first time it felt as if we were staring one another down. The Mass of the Resurrection was at a close. I know Kim Long is the director of Religious Education at St. Mary of the Pines Parish from experience that the hardest days are still to come in Shreveport, LA. for this family. Those ordinary Tuesdays, “the rest of us barely register” when the casseroles are on the wane and
6 THE CATHOLIC CONNECTION
