I was with my father at the National Gallery when he got to see one of his favorite paintings, “The Sacrament of the Last Supper” by Salvador Dali.

It’s a striking work. At first you know what your are looking at, the Last Supper, but then you aren’t so sure. The room opens to the outside through a strange, polyhedral window. A male torso floats eerily above. What’s going on?

Jesus gestures to himself with his left hand and upward with his right. This has generally been taken as a reference to John 14:9 where Jesus tells Philip, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” Dali shows us the mystical connection between Jesus and the Father.

But there is one more curiosity. Two of the disciples appear to be kneeling on our side of the table. The light marks off a square like a corporal on an altar holding the bread and wine.

This painting is a complex symbol. When we celebrate the Holy Communion with the earthly elements of bread and wine Christ is truly present. In one and the same moment we are at his table, with him at the Last Supper, and anticipating sharing with him in the Heavenly Banquet. There is so much more at work than our earthly senses can perceive. What joy that we are invited to this mystic feast.

Thanks be to our Lord Jesus Christ for the gift of eternal life brought by his death and resurrection and presented to us in his Body and Blood.

Read Matthew 26:26-29 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne Originally posted May 2018