Communion

On the night he was handed over to suffering and death, our
Lord Jesus Christ took bread; and when he had given thanks
to you, he broke it, and gave it to his disciples, and said, “Take,
eat: This is my Body, which is given for you. Do this for the
remembrance of me.”

After supper he took the cup of wine; and when he had given
thanks, he gave it to them, and said, “Drink this, all of you:
This is my Blood of the new Covenant, which is shed for you
and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink
it, do this for the remembrance of me.”

Those words of institution from the Book of Common Prayer have been used for hundreds of years (with slight variations) during the Christian Communion service. Yet it strikes me that there are elements of the Last supper that have often been overlooked, nor is it stated in any of the gospel accounts of the Last Supper. I refer to the acts of hospitality as understood in middle eastern culture.

In the modern Western world, hospitality has taken on different connotations. Perhaps as religious traditions became uprooted from the Middle East, the primacy of this virtue—or at least its association with the compassionate treatment of strangers—was lost. Westerners tend to see receiving guests as part of creating relationships. We entertain family and friends and those whom we wish to cultivate as friends rather than opening our homes to strangers. Our care for strangers tends to be monetary rather than personal.

While there are things to be said for this approach, it lacks the moral centrality of the view of hospitality John Koenig traces to ancient Greece and the Near East. As he writes in New Testament Hospitality,"According to this tradition, which has virtually disappeared from contemporary Western culture, hospitality is seen as one of the pillars of morality upon which the universe stands. When guests or hosts violate the obligations to each other, the whole world shakes and retribution follows."

The sharing of food together was a token of friendship, a form of covenantal commitment. One of the most despicable acts in the ancient world was to eat with someone and then betray them (Obadiah 7; Psa 41:9; and of course Judas, John 13:18). This entire "code" of hospitality in the Middle East was so strong that it evoked a warning: "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares" (Heb 13:2). It is also this dimension of mutual commitment in the sharing of food that provides the Eucharist with one of its most dynamic meanings.

“The source of hospitality is the heart of God, who yearns to unite every creature within one embrace. Only in the fullness of time will God gather all things in Christ, yet God's boundless wel­come is something we already enjoy here and now in the Eucharist. Our life together as a com­munity gives us a foretaste of the communion of saints. So we have the power to be a sacrament of God's hospitality, a house of God, offering [God’s] nurture and protection to all who come under our roof.” The Rule of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist, Chapter 34

As Christ said, “By this everyone will know you are my disciples, if you love one another.” And for many, we are the only face of Christ they will see. This indeed makes the role of hospitality in the Middle East and North Africa truly sacred. When someone visits, Arab Muslims often say, “The Prophet [Mohammed] visited us”. For Christians, to welcome and host others provides a wonderful opportunity to see Christ among us.

Although we Christians largely view the Eucharist as symbolic of Christ's sacrifice for our iniquities, I believe we have much to learn from the ancient tribal hospitality customs, as regarding the responsibility for and to one another that is implied in the shared meal.