I love eating with my family :) I love elbows on the table. I love sitting next to my left-handed brother and dodging arms with him as we eat. I love being in a little circle facing faces that are dear to me. I love the food my mother prepares. I love hearing about everyone's day. All of it--even the spilled milk (which I don't think has ever been cried over). There's something so warm about coming together--it's a symbol of unity each day. It's like planets in their own orbits coming at least once daily into line.
Christ loved eating with people, too. He did it all of the time, even with thousands. Throughout time, eating together has been a symbol of unity and communion--it means sharing the substance of life with others. In my New Testament class, we also learned that eating with others in the time of Christ implied a certain type of covenant (or promise): the host promised protection and the guest promised loyalty. When Christ instituted the last supper, such a covenant was made. Yet, the disciples abandoned or denied Christ and broke their part of the covenant. In the last chapter of John, Christ meets with the disciples again to eat: to make a new covenant. He instructs the disciples to go out and share the gospel with the world and this time they prove faithful.
When we take the sacrament we are covenanting with God to follow Him and keep His commandments. Likewise, perhaps we covenant in some small way with our families as we eat with them--we promise to protect and be loyal to one another, just as people did of old. Let's come together more and be one. Let's protect one another better and be more loyal both to each other and to God. Let's be a covenant people.
*This is a family photo from a road trip some of my siblings (the youngest was still a little baby) and I took with my dad. We're not necessarily at a table, but we are eating together! Eating cereal on the top of a van is a pretty fun bonding experience :)
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