Food was always created in Italian families to share, so the making of it was a great priority. My seven Aunts would trade state secrets about the different ways they made their sauce. Some used paste, puree, or crushed tomatoes that cooked down in a few hours, but some preferred cooking from "scratch" with fresh tomatoes that needed to simmer all day. Spices used could be basil, oregano, or both. Some used onion; some added garlic. Some sauces were pungent; some were sweeter. Some cooked sauce with pork bones nestled on the bottom of the pan to add flavor. Veal, pork, or beef were used in making their meatballs, and the balls were either fried or baked before they were simmered in the sauce for an hour or two.
Their sauces were as unique and different as the wonderful women who created them, a delight to your eye, your nose, and your taste buds. I saw and tasted and smelled the same mouth-watering diversity in the dishes loading our St. Joseph's Table tonight. So many wonderful cooks and bakers were desiring to share the bounty they had so lovingly created.
God creates each of us with the same wonderful diversity that my Aunts created in their sauces. He creates some of us sweet and some of us spicy. Some of us take a long time to "simmer on the stove" before we're mature and mellow; some of us are ripened and ready very quickly. Some of us are delicate in our appeal; some of us are robust and full-bodied. God knows that the Table of various personalities that He spreads before His world provides a rich meal of gifts and blessings to feed and energize His people.
Each of us is a special, unique "Dish," a blend of various gifts that are the ingredients to bring us to dazzling life. Do we appreciate all that we are; do we realize that we have been created to be shared?
God used a crock pot in creating St. Peter. The man was so stubborn and sometimes wrong-headed that God knew He had to cook Peter on a slow, all-day simmer before he was ready to lead the Church. So Peter had three years to follow Jesus, and then had to endure Jesus' death, be amazed by His resurrection, be terrified hiding in an upper room, and then be filled by the Holy Spirit before he could lead the fledgling Church.
But eventually Peter understood and accepted his role as leader, in a final, total surrender to God, and commitment to Christ. In those early days of praying and preaching and working miracles to create a community of believers, Peter and John walked the streets of Jerusalem and stopped by a lame beggar. The beggar expected to be given alms. But Peter, inspired by the Holy Spirit, knew the unique gift he could share with this man: the healing gift of Jesus the Christ. He said to him:
"I have neither silver nor gold, but what I do have I give you: in the Name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, arise and walk." Peter raised him by his right hand, and the man leaped up and went into the Temple with them "walking and jumping and praising God." (Acts 3: 1-10.)
Peter knew who he was, an apostle of Jesus Christ, a leader. He knew what he had, the energizing gifts of preaching and teaching and healing. And he gave these gifts away generously, and courageously. He shared abundantly the Great Gift of Jesus the Christ.
So, special, God-created Dish that you are, filled and seasoned with amazing gifts, say to your world " What I do have I give you." Be salt; be yeast; be taco or meatball or mousse. Be who you are on God's Table of Plenty and feed and energize and enrich everyone who meets you in the Name of Jesus the Nazorean!