Companion: Latin: com-, together + panis, bread = "one who eats bread
with one another." (from the chapter on food in the book Way to Live:
Christian Practices for Teens. Edited by Dorothy C. Bass and Don C.
Richter.)
We're "companions" when we sit down together at a
church potluck or around the family supper table. I did that last night
with my kids and Elyse's best friend. And after all of us
had helped prepare the meal: Elyse cleaning and slicing strawberries,
her friend setting the table, Luke helping me at the stove... After we
were all finally sitting down together, we breathed in a collective
sigh... and gave thanks: to God, to each other, for God, for each other.
There's another response to food we dare not forget. When we
pray, "Give us this day our daily bread," we are reminded that we're
asking for "our" daily bread, not just "mine." So our response to food
includes remembering other people. The authors of the food chapter in
Way to Live expand on this, saying, "Extending God's generosity means
actively working to restore honor and life to those people and that land
burdened with the work of providing food. It means sharing our food
with those who have none, being advocates for the poor, and working to
change policies and systems that keep some people hungry while others
have more than enough to eat. In short, giving thanks to God is more
than saying grace at the table; it is living lives that reflect God's
justice and love" (pp. 68-69).
Parting thought. When we take
time, especially at the table, to breathe in God and to thank God, when
we welcome God to our breakfast nooks, our table-for-two at the bagel
cafe, or our booth at the pizza joint, God becomes our companion. After
the resurrection, you may remember, it was when Christ gave thanks and
broke and shared the bread that the disciples' eyes were opened; and
they recognized him.
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