A Place of Vulnerability and Trust
When we gather around the table and eat from the same loaf and drink from the same cup, we are most vulnerable to one another. We cannot have a meal together in peace with guns hanging over our shoulders and pistols attached to our belts.
When we break bread together we leave our arms–whether they are physical or mental–at the door and enter into a place of mutual vulnerability and trust.
The beauty of the Eucharist is precisely that it is the place where a vulnerable God invites vulnerable people to come together in a peaceful meal. When we break bread and give it to each other, fear vanishes and God becomes very close.
This is an excerpt from the book Bread for the Journey by Henri J. M. Nouwen.
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