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MAKING A MEAL OF IT
Meals are a human institution, indeed without them we would not be human, We are the only animals who prepare our food, who engage in cooking and the transformation of what we eat from its raw state, and for us food is always more than ‘fuel’ or nourishment. It is always worth noting that food is not only that which sustains us, but is a basic focus of all existence. Most of the time of most of the people who have ever lived have been spent in the task of obtaining, preparing and eating food. Meals are not only central to survival, they are at the heart of every human culture. No shared meal means, no culture, no society. As an Italian writer on food recently observed
That the dining table is one of the best places for communication – perhaps the ideal place, where the desire to communicate with one’s family is expressed with ease and freedom – is so evident and so readily observable in daily life.
From such a perspective to hear that Jesus taught at table, that he is described ‘as the bread of life’ or that we should see the table as the ideal place of talking to the Father and where our sharing in the one loaf can be seen as communion should be equally apparent
Christ is located at the very heart of our humanity. He is the bread, the basic foodstuff, of life. At every Eucharist Jesus sits with us at table, gives thanks to the Father and shares with us the Bread of Life