Today is Michaelmas and the gospel reading is Matthew 22, The Wedding Banquet. Banquet, feast, shared dinner, being at table with family and friends, this is the setting for essential conversation and drama.

At our table the other night with guests for dinner, the conversation was ranging far and wide, and somehow it came to musings about what would you request to eat if you were on death row and this was your last meal. I was thinking about it. Would I say what really came to mind amidst the jovial banter?

I would have said that they could easily guess what it would be. Would that have left the happy gathering speechless? Surely we would have plunged from wedding banquet to the last supper while they caught my thought. But the conversation drifted past me and it remained unspoken; there was enough going on anyway, enough to share while we sat together around the table.

Posted by Cheryl Nekvapil