Reflection: September 19, 2026

On Sunday Sept. 20th, St. Aidan’s will focus on Creation Cares, with Luke’s gospel of the Road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-36). In that gospel, two disciples recognized the risen Jesus in the way he broke bread. Sunday’s homily will be by Sally Wooton, Adjunct Professor of Narrative Theology at Trinity College, University of Toronto, who has given permission to reprint this version of it. The Homily is called Bread That Remembers, adapted from the story by Joseph J. Juknialis.  

**

Some time ago people had not yet forgotten that bread always remembers what is spoken in its presence. If goodness was spoken among those gathered around the bread, then those who ate that bread would be blessed; and if it was selfishness and evil that was spoken, those who ate the bread would be cursed with cold hearts and hardened spirits.

**

There were, in those days, a brother and sister. Many thought them to be twins for they looked so much alike not only in appearance, but in what they did and how they treated others.  

Their mother had died in giving birth to the younger, and so the two had been raised by their kind and loving father – each reflecting his goodness and gentleness. Perhaps that is why they were thought to be twins by the many who knew them.

One day in early spring, after they had grown to young adulthood, yet before either of them had married and left home, their father grew seriously ill. Before the seeds of that season had sprouted with life, the father died, leaving his offspring to depend on their own goodness.

Together the two came before the judge of that land so that the father’s will might be unsealed in order that each might receive what the father had promised.

The reading of the will revealed that the land be sold to free his children of the responsibility of caring for it. Because the father had loved them both, without favouritism of any sort, each would receive half of the profit of the sale.

**

Surprisingly, the son wanted to sell the land to an oil company. It had offered a lot of money, in a cash sale, because it believed there was oil beneath the land. Despite knowing that burning oil caused climate change, the son was greedy for the gains he would make from a quick sale to an oil company. 

The younger felt a deepening despair as she feared extreme weather and the health of the Earth. She did not want to contribute to heating the planet by selling to an oil company.

Instead, she wanted the land to be sold to a local alternative energy co-op to put up solar panels and wind turbines.

However, the co-op didn’t have as much cash or credit as the oil company. The brother and sister would have to hold the mortgage, and the purchase would be completed over time from the sale of energy.

The choices came down to individual profit or the common good... quick money or a stream of payments and benefits.

With that the brother turned away from his sister and left.

**

When the brother arrived home he sat in anger at the very table where he and his sister, together with their father, had shared meals and love and life.

There at that table, he allowed his anger to unravel more and more. Shattering the gentle stillness which had long been a family member, he spewed curses and hatred at the embarrassed and lonely silence.

Suddenly he stood pounded the table with yet more violence and left. 

In all of his anger what the elder brother had never noticed was the bread on the table.

**

Shortly thereafter the younger sister came home. Having found her elder brother gone, she sat and waited amid the stained silence.

When the elder brother never returned the younger sister ate her evening meal alone in the torn darkness of that night. 

There she ate the bread, which had heard the elder’s anger, the bread that remembered.

That night the heart of the sister grew cold and hardened, scarred with the same selfishness and hatred which lived within her brother.

The next day’s morning sun was the sole source of light in the siblings home. The older brother did return but without the gentleness and love which once were his. 

So also did the younger sister live without her father’s gifts, twinned again, though now in hatred as once they had been in goodness and peace.

**

During those weeks of summer, the entire countryside came to recognize the change which had come about between the two siblings. Their hearts quietly wept in sadness over that tragic occurrence.

Somewhere in the middle of that summer the Wise One of the village invited the inhabitants of the surrounding countryside to a common meeting. 

On a warm summer evening all but the brother and sister came to the village square in the center of the town. Men and women gathered. Children came along; strangers were welcomed.

There on the table in the center of their gathering, was placed a single loaf of bread. When it seemed that all had arrived, the one who was wise came before them and explained why she had called them together. 

“If it is true that the bread always remembers,” she said, “then perhaps we can bring blessings of gentleness and love once again.”

She invited all those who had come to tell stories of the goodness which once lived in the hearts of both the elder and the younger siblings, and to tell those stories in the presence of the bread –  the bread that always remembers.

One by one, then, they came forward and stood before the bread and before their neighbours, there to tell their own story of how they had been blessed with life by the brother and sister. Many stories were told that night all in the presence of the bread.

“I remember when the siblings shared half of their own harvest with a neighbour when wildfires burned his barn and, with the barn, all of that season’s labours as well.”

“I recall when the sister and brother sheltered those who lost their homes in the flood after days of rain”

“I remember the year it didn’t rain at all and the brother and sister shared water from their stream so we could feed our livestock.”

“When our car broke down, they carpooled us to town until it was repaired.” 

“Even when they could drive, they often rode their bikes everywhere because they liked to exercise. They’d race each other and laugh.”

“They loved to bake and their pastries were so light...and they shared them with others.”

“When they joined us in protesting the pipelines they did it with such joy.”

All evening long villagers and countryfolk stood in front of everyone and, in the presence of that lone loaf of bread, told stories of the gentleness and goodness, sharing and caring which once had made a home among the siblings.

When the last story had been told, well past the time when many of the children had fallen asleep in the arms of their parents, all those who had gathered made their way to their homes and to the healing sleep which awaited them.

**

After all had left the Wise One who had gathered them all stood alone at the table with the bread. She picked up the loaf of bread, and began her journey to the home of the brother and sister. She arrived just before the sun, when the nighttime had not yet begun to shed the skin of darkness.

Her deed was simple and quickly done – to leave the bread at the door and depart. 

As she made her way home amid the early showers of morning sun, she realized she was not tired though she had not slept the entire night. Instead, she felt within herself a rising hope of life, led by the possibility that the two siblings, when they found the bread, they might just offer each other that bread and with it all of the goodness and gentleness all the sharing and caring it remembered.

And she said a prayer for the brother and sister...  and for the whole community.