Food for a rugged and dangerous journey through life.

Corpus Christi

Holy and Healing Food for a rugged and dangerous journey through life.

A few days ago, one of Mother Theresa’s sisters, Sister Avint, was celebrating 50 years as a nun.

I was invited to be there, since I have worked with the sisters for almost 40 years here in Haiti, but because of the time of the mass I could not attend.

I did go to visit with Sr Avint late that same afternoon, and I was going to bring a cake.

But, a better thought was to bring her some of my home made chocolate.

Even better, 50 bars, one for each of her years as a Sister.

White chocolate

White with almonds

White with cinnamon

White with anisette

Dark chocolate plain

Dark with mints

Dark with caramel

Dark with almonds and raisins

And bars of mixed white and dark (like a piano keyboard)

I explained to her how many steps there are to making something bitter like cacao become something sweet.

Fermenting the beans, drying the beans, roasting the beans, shucking the beans, blending the beans and finally after “tempering” them with three different fires, setting them in their form.

Sister was pretty impressed especially at the idea of 50 of these bars in front of me and said

Maybe you forgot I am diabetic!

No I didn’t forget, I assured her. In fact I never thought she would eat the bars.

I told her if she ate all the bars she would look less like Sr Avint and more like Mother Earth.

But I also told her I was sure, which in fact was the case, these bars would be her way of celebrating her gratitude for her vocation with the poor who are her charge.

I told her that the art of making something bitter become sweet (and even irresistible), is symbolic of the work of priests and sisters. We help people with their bitter burdens and lighten their load.

Each of the 50 bars represents one year of her loving care to people whose suffferings are bitter, and to whom she has brought sweet relief.

I looked at Sister smiling at me. Smiling because she is as deaf as a stone and missed half of what I said and was happy anyway, no matter what I said.

I looked at her weathered face and wrinkled hands.

I thought, what a beautiful and graceful little old lady.

Then she asked me what year I took my vows. With my fingers I showed her 1975.

Then I realized my God! The same year.

What? We are the same age?

I am a little old man looking at a little old woman and celebrating the same milestone-except I don’t certainly don’t have her beauty or grace!

But what we two have in common with each other, and with millions of Christians around the world, is that we have not only a better food than chocolate, but THE BEST food.

We have been strengthen and enlightened and led for these many long years by bread and wine transformed by the promise of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit, into the sacrament which is at once the Risen Body of Jesus, his Soul, and his Divinity.

This is our food and strength, this is one of the ways how he promised to be present to believers, during his long physical absence from us, from Ascension to Apocalypse.

It is certainly not only Haiti that knows peril and danger in these times. May God help us to be salt and light, and even bring some small sweetness, to very bitter realities that often none of us can escape.

God will bless our efforts for better days.

Fr Rick Frechette CP DO Port au Prince