Where can one be full yet empty at the same time?
Some might say heaven, full of joy, empty of pain.
Others think hell, full of torment, empty of jubilation.
However, the place I’m referring to is somewhere we can go to right now.
In fact, it’s somewhere you can go every day regardless of the place you’ll be in the end.
It’s the buffet.
Ether, you’re not the only one with an ancestor who loved those places.
My grandfather was a regular.
Before he sat down, they had a cup of coffee and a Diet Pepsi waiting for him.
My grandmother would go and get something normal, a salad and then an entree that looked good plus a couple of sides.
Enough to sustain, even in a building designed for gluttony, she was the very symbol of temperance.
However, opposites attract and my grandfather proved it.
He treated how much he could carry on a plate as a challenge. If he could see white, he treated it as a failure.
It got bad after his mother died, he felt so empty after she passed, he went there as much as possible to have a semblance of feeling full.
What he ate changed, he went from steak to turkey as a reminder of her home cooked meals.
Anything exotic was replaced by pure Americana.
He needed that buffet to feel like his mom’s kitchen, to feel like home.
All my grandma could do was put her hand on his shoulder and tell him everything was going to be alright.
When one is empty, they tend to go where they shouldn’t to get what they feel they need.
His stomach was full but his heart was always empty.
That is until eating at a buffet every day caught up to him and his arteries became so full, it led to cardiac arrest and him passing away mere days later.
Getting a fake sense of being fulfilled only leads to others feeling empty.
My grandmother soon went every day, she didn’t need all the food he did but the memories he left behind.
Feeling like he was there, having a piece of him fulfilled her more than any dish could.
Having a piece of someone we know loves us and cares about us deeply is better than any buffet.
You know what, Ether, part of me wonders if you would truly be hungry if it wasn’t for losing Dante.
However, you don’t have to gorge yourself to feel fulfilled.
Come to a place where the world’s most fulfilling dinner is served, the lord’s supper.
Partake in Eucharist.
Take that communion wafer and ingest the body of Christ, have that piece of him there to not only feed you but nourish a part of you no food has ever touched, nourish the soul.
Drink the wine and imbibe the blood of Christ, let it flow through you and strengthen you in a way no amount of protein can.
You don’t need to be hungry anymore Ether, stop choosing to be.
Come join us and be eternally fulfilled.