Making a Bigger Table

The following poem was inspired by the Jesuit priest and scientist Teilhard de Chardin, who sometimes did not have what he needed to offer mass while working in a remote area of China. Instead, he envisioned the entire universe as an altar, because the whole universe is in process of becoming unified in Christ, and he offered a spiritual Mass on the World. The poem was also influenced by Fr. Richard Rohr, who noted regarding Jesus’ dining habits that he was “always breaking the rules and making a bigger table.”

Alteration

I have prayed at altars

made out of a manger,

fine white marble,

a lunchroom folding table,

a box covered by a scarf,

and a long, flat limestone rock

pocked with insect fossils,

though I suspect that if God

were to send the angel

Gabriel to us in a dream

with design specifications

for the ideal altar, each

side of the structure

would feature grooves

to permit the addition

of an infinite number

of leaves so everyone

could have a place

at the table.