the proto-sacrament

it has taken some time for the alignments of space and time to so converge so as to
provide a working establishment for the treating of the theme at hand


I begin the vision provided in the encyclical  Amoris Laetitia  which is the most recent Vatican effort to bolster our basic understanding of family....in the opening chapters of the document there is a reference to a poet   Borges...a line from one of his more social poems.... ' every home is a lampstand'


Francisco Jorge Bergoglio then provides an instant picture of family life set around the table of the home during a feast....he consciously presents this image as the essential focus of what the rest of the document is to be about


thus I begin to contemplate the theological possibilities of centering a theological discussion on the reality of home and home life...how distracted we've all become from this one basic principle...it is common amongst young people to express surprise at having to sit formally at a table....the practice of family meals has been all but undermined in favor of he plenitude of quick food and restaurants and a shifting of focus regarding what the shared meal is actually all about...the modern mechanistic appropriation of food has meant that the mere function of sustenance is an end in itself....food is a biological necessity and that then remains the predominant attitude of American concerns with eating


So I have wanted to begin with the table....I have wanted to say that a home is not a home without a table...I have also said time and again that the basis of culture is the hearth...a healthy vibrant hearth has meaning beyond its function


I began thinking about the cultural phenomenon of home years ago while reading Wendell Berry...his observations are no less significant today...he describes the paradigm of the farmstead as the basic social pattern of cultivating cultural themes and relationships in society...this now being usurped by the more urban models -----and necessities of the home taking on a mere functionary status in relationship to a workplace....the idea of the farm is the extending rings of connectivity centering on the home - the farmyard - the land itself - the neighbors - the town......in this model the home remains the center of all cultural consideration and could easily be thought of as containing theological content




with the compromise of agri-business the farm becomes a competitive entity amongst other competitive entities each farmer is  a business unto himself  and the broader world is his market not the local needs of daily goods


the encyclical
Amoris Laetitia does not dwell upon the concept of home
only a few allusions in the opening paragraphs


as a roman catholic I must say that it would appear impossible to regard a public christian worship space without a table...the celebration of eucharist is determined not simply by bread and wine but by the physical context of the table...to which all are invited


the social implications are as fascinating as they are troubling
I was once fond of angrily debasing the very American preoccupation with
real-estate
thinking of real-estate brokers as parasites of the worst order
feeding off of this strange tendency to make a commodity of property
a commodity that is always priced, always for sale,, always being assessed
in terms of potential worth
this has resulted in  the phenomenon of signs appearing which proclaim
HOME FOR SALE
and it occurs to me that this is a terrible denigration of the concept of home
for in a sane world one would not even be able to make that statement
a HOME can never be sold
a HOME can be made
a HOME can be kept
but
  only a house can be sold
a structure emptied of all the evidence of a family


I wish to establish something along the lines of sacramental consideration
 for the home




another poet - Robert Frost - stated something to the affect that


...home is the place where 
   when you go there
   they have to take  you in




I immediately liken these words to the fundamental principle of grace
in christian teaching


home is where grace
that purely gratuitous offering from god
is given first
and
it is re-enforced in the ordinary daily process of work, meals, conversation,
hopefully music,  and prayer




let us consider the lived experience of home as a real SACRAMENT
























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