Dismantling the Table

                                                      (Holy Thursday)

Lots of changes are afoot in my life. Among other things I’m selling my condo.  So imagine the mess…cleaning out cupboards and the attic and the garage.  The good news is that I have given lots of things away.  For the most part it hasn’t been hard to let these things go.   

Except for my dining room table and chairs.  I gave it to my sister and her husband. The day after Christmas they measured the table. And they put the chairs in their hatchback and started to unscrew the table top from its base.  As they dismantled the table, my heart was in my mouth. I couldn’t talk.  If I had said anything, I would have sobbed. 

I have always thought of that table as a kind of ‘household altar’…a place to gather loved ones for a meal and a kind of communion. That table has dreams and people attached to it. 

The dismantling of the table is a symbol of the dismantling of my life right now.  (Retirement is also on the horizon.). These are dying moments.  In the midst of them, sometimes I cry.

Tears dried, I remembered why I gave my table to my sister and brother-in-law.  They’ll use it on Friday mornings when a group of their friends always come for coffee and donuts. They’ll sit around that table and enjoy each other’s company.  So my dream for that table lives on.  That is such a comfort.

Jesus had dreams too.  His best dream lives on in the Eucharist.  His table.

Have you ever thought of your table as a ‘household altar?  What dreams do you hope will live on when your life is dismantled?