As a child, I grew up to love the Harry Potter movies (based on the book series by J.K. Rowling). One common image that came back in every movie was that of the great dining hall. Every year the students would return and commune together to celebrate their triumphs, languish over their defeats, and find refuge in the camaraderie of their tables. Even though the student loved to stuff their faces, they were not just communing but sharing in the experience of one another.
Using an example as Harry Potter alone shows that, communing doesn't have to be a religious event even though when most think about the word, a picture of the last supper pops up in their head. Communing isn't just eating either as those who taking a Freudian approach to it would think. When someone sits down to share a meal with somebody else, their encounter becomes communion because they are "breaking bread" with one another. This encounter is the same as fellowship.
Because Communion often is thought to have a religious or formal setting, it often hard to believe that it and fellowship are not that different. By definition Communion is the sharing of intimate thoughts and experiences with others but does that not include fellowship in the process? The religious use of the word communion makes that connection more clear because again, people often think of the fellowship of the last supper.
In my own life I have experienced that even though communing with one another is an essential social interaction, it is not always easy to share such an intimate experience. Eating with others can be a challenge when the food is not good, people are messy eaters, or most importantly, food becomes a distraction from the importance of the moment. Food is what we surround ourselves with when we commune but ultimately it is about the experience of connecting with another person on an intimate level using food as a common ground into another person emotional bubble. In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Ron, Hermione, start the basis of their friendship by communing over candy from the candy cart. In the end it wasn't about the candy, it was about using something familiar and loved to connect to another person.
On the other hand, I've spoken to many people who have said eating around others is a vulnerable occasion because eating when other are around brings about anxiety and insecurities about food and people to the surface. This is a good thing because the best way to work through our problems, even if they base off of something as familiar as food is, together and with support.
Rather it be a huge buffet or cheese and crackers, Communion is something divine that can reaches everyone in all realms. It doesn't matter if a person is rich, poor, black, white,young or old. It brings about fellowship and helps to connect people on a divine level that we can't understand. This happens through simple eating. Who would have thought?
