Holy Communion

There’s a scene in the movie Chocolat in which Vianne, the main character, throws a birthday party for a friend. This isn’t just any birthday party, though. The movie takes place in a French village in which social and moral boundaries are strictly enforced. Vianne ignores those boundaries and invites a cross-section of people to the party. In this scene, they are all there: the morally-upstanding townspeople who exist on one side of the line; and the chocolate-shop owner, the gypsy pariah, and the misunderstood battered wife who exist on the other side. They seem uneasy at first, but the food and communion break down the walls so relationships can form. At the end, Vianne breaks down the walls further by inviting the party guests to dessert on the gypsy’s boat.

Oh, why not just watch it. You get to look at Johnny Depp, anyway.

I used the word “communion,” earlier, and I didn’t really mean “Holy Communion,” as we Christians most often use it. One way to define the word is as “a sharing.” When people eat together, they share more than food. They share their lives, their hearts, their souls.

Something similar to the Chocolat dinner party happens in the South Bronx every week, but on a much grander and more meaningful scale. Watch Sara Frazier's story here.

I remember Sara from ACU Leadership Camps in years past. The way she lives out her faith challenges me. I don’t know that I could give up what she did to spend myself on others.

But Sara’s story, as well as the Chocolat dinner party scene, inspires me. I want to open my home more to others. To people who haven’t been there before. And people who have. I want people around my table who haven’t eaten together before. When this happens, communion happens. A sharing. A sharing that can become holy. So maybe I’ve been talking about Holy Communion all along.

When I read verses such as I Cor. 12-26, John 13:35, John 15:12, James 2:1-12 and Romans 12:10, they tell me that the more a church body can blur class distinctions, social boundaries and clique lines, the more it will look like Jesus. And I believe this can begin around anyone’s table. I’m going to try it with mine.