Eating has almost always been at the center of our celebrations and important gatherings as humankind. If it’s a party we eat! As many college students know, if you want someone to come to your gathering offer pizza, and there’s good reason for that. Even if it’s a memorial service, we eat – celebrating the life of the one that has passed, celebrating our coming together as a family in remembrance of them, and often finding comfort in their continued life in the spiritual realm.
It makes sense, eating is a joy, often a communal one, and most of us feel good when we eat. Moreover, although we may not recognize it, most of us also feel God(dess) when we eat – the root of all goodness, comfort, and love, whatever we call her. Meals are a time to connect and share – share in the gifts of others, the fruit of our labor, the benefits and joys of community. When we think of dinner, at its best it’s a time of thanksgiving, of family and life-giving connections. I think that’s at the heart of why Christ emphasized that we should break bread and drink wine in contemplation of him, in remembrance of Divinity – the root of all things. Even if we don’t believe in Jesus as the Christ, his sentiment holds: our Higher Power, God(dess), is the cause and substance of all being according to many traditions, and provides all of our nourishment both physical and spiritual. We should remember that and give thanks, recognizing that everything is a gift!
That’s what “Eucharist” means, “to give thanks.” And of course, the other name for the Christian ritual remembering how God sustains us is “Communion,” which ties into how we should give thanks in community and for community. Although instituted as a Christian ceremony, Communion and the Eucharist in the most fundamental way possible transcends our typical idea of Christianity and is hopefully present with all of us as we live our lives, consuming the things that empower us (thanks to God), sharing that in community, and giving thanks.
Funny enough, many people call the Biblical root of Communion the “Last Supper,” which in a way is a misnomer! Christ actually had a number of suppers with disciples and others after his resurrection, according to the Gospel. Even the act of celebrating Communion itself is in a way stating that that meal was definitely not the Last Supper, but one of an infinite string of celebrations of God(dess)’s continued presence, her gifts and sustenance.
However, it was the last supper before Jesus was arrested and then crucified, which I believe holds some special significance. It would likely be this meal that the disciples would hold in their memory as the trial of the coming days commenced and as they felt the lack of Christ’s bodily presence at their next meal. This supper would be ripe with fear and other emotions in the face of their teacher and close friend’s impending death, so, in a way, using this dinner as the time to emphasize his continued presence with them and his hope that they will continue to commune and celebrate was greatly meaningful, and can deeply speak to us at our times of great sorrow and fear.
It can remind us that even in the presence of hurt, trauma, and fear, we should reach for communion and celebrate God’s continued gifts – those aspects of life that feed us and uplift us – as well as celebrate her presence doing the same with all creation. God says that even in your hardest moments you receive my gifts, my life, my “flesh and blood” – as he calls it, and so celebrate and lean into sharing this bread of life with others.
The scientist-turned-mystical thinker that unintentionally inspired our denomination, Emanuel Swedenborg, talks a lot about the meaning of communion in his writings. He says that the bread and wine in this ritual and in scripture represent goodness and truth from God. For Swedenborg, goodness and truth are the infinite gifts that make up all of creation – they allow for healthy, helpful intentions and actions (goodness) as well as the solid structures within us and without that allow for that goodness to manifest (truth). He points out that scripture often alludes to this, and sometimes uses bread and wine to speak about goodness and truth, or their opposites, evil and falsity. He also relates bread and wine to the meaning of flesh and blood in scripture, which also represents God’s goodness and truth, of which we should eat. Which is what Christ says when he tells us that we eat his flesh and blood when we eat bread and wine. Ultimately, goodness and truth are not just gifts from God, but they’re also God herself with us and around us in everything good, healthy, truthful, wise, and loving.
Scriptures paint the picture that God wants us to commune and give thanks for him and each other! He calls on us to share physical and spiritual sustenance as a community just as he shares his goodness and truth, his life, with all of us - nourishing us with aspects of himself through each other and our universe. We celebrate this Communion every day to the extent we lean into the idea of communion, lean into remembrance and thanksgiving of Divinity in all the gifts that make up our body and our spiritual lives, all the gifts that energize and give rise to our joy and our journey toward the heavenly kin-dom.
Entering communion calls on us to acknowledge that we are not the source of our lives, our sustenance. It encapsulates Christ’s message of relinquishing ego and empowering our communities and world toward health, justice, and sustainable connections. May we each break bread and drink wine in remembrance of God, knowing that we are all empowered and embodied thanks to the body of the living Lord, whatever you call him.
