The following is a guest post from Jessica Gibson, Youthfront School of Formation's Director of Community Life.
“One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating” (Luciano Pavarotti, Pavarotti, My Own Story).
In the YSF house, we eat meals together. We plan and cook dinners together. In our weekly meetings we throw out ideas of what to serve. Some of us suggest burgers while others venture off into culinary dreamland with shish kabobs and fondue. Shopping duties are rotated and we follow a household budget for food costs. Breakfast and lunch are less structured, but inevitably end up being at least somewhat communal. Someone decides to make chocolate chip pancakes and calls out to see who wants to join in the deliciousness. Or someone else gets up early and makes banana muffins out of old bananas we can’t seem to eat before they go black.
This way of ‘doing eating’ may seem foreign to some. Seven people all eating together every night? Keeping to a budget? What about individual tastes? And what about all those dishes?
YSF’s ways of doing shopping, cooking, and eating are intentional. We believe that they draw us further into community, further into interdependence. And that they bring us joy and rest.
Eating together forces us to die to self and submit ourselves to the community. If I eat all of the bagels the day after we shop, no one else can enjoy them. If the shoppers decide to get only jalapeño chips, the weak of taste buds suffer. I, as a community member, am subject to the shopping habits, cooking methods, and eating ways of others. It is only food, but it is humbling nonetheless. Bonhoeffer explains it this way: “Now no one must hunger as long as the other has bread, and whoever shatters this community of our bodily life also shatters the community of the Spirit. Both are inextricably linked together” (Bonhoeffer, Life Together).
Eating together also brings opportunity to share over the table. In Spanish there is a delightful term for the talk that happens after dinner when friends and family are seated with bellies full and plates empty—sobremesa, or ‘over the table’. As our house gathers for dinner, it is usually a scramble to make sure we have enough plates out, a dash to find serving spoons, and an assembly line of condiments exiting the refrigerator headed toward the table. Sometimes there are only seven or eight of us, but more often nine to twelve of us gather closely around the table. And when we finally sit and plates are filled, we begin to talk. It is then that stories from the night before, from our pasts, or from something we read about come out. It is then that ideas spring forth. “Ooh, let’s go to the park after dinner to read and hang out!” “We should invite so-and-so over for dinner soon!” And so on. It is a boisterous time of sharing. When the food is eaten, instead of rushing off to our busy lives, we remain a while and continue to talk. The true sobremesa begins! More stories, more ideas, more laughter. This sharing is a needed break in the midst of class assignments, community development, chores, and the rest of daily life.
YSF is a vibrant example of sharing around the table, a living reminder that “the breaking of bread together has a festive quality. In the midst of the working day given to us again and again, it is a reminder that God rested after God’s work…We labor, but God nourishes and sustains us. That is a reason to celebrate” (Bonhoeffer, Life Together).
These meals together, as significant as they may be, are not in themselves ‘community’. But I believe that our meal times reflect the health of our community. We could go about our days on our own, independent from one another, and then come to the table and eat at the same time. And clear the dishes. And go our separate ways again. Instead, our meals are a picture of what we have committed to be together. We go about our days together, we are dependent on one another, and we come to the table to share together. We clear the dishes and continue our life together. No, we don’t spend every waking hour physically together, but we do commit to living connectedly in a broader sense.
We recognize that only in Christ is it possible to live like this. Loving one another and committing to life together. Because it is “only when the community has been provided and strengthened with the bread of eternal life does it gather together to receive from God the earthly bread for this bodily life (Bonhoeffer, Life Together). In Christ we can live our lives like a large, scrumptious meal. Preparing it together, adding seasoning. Asking someone to pass the fries and handing someone else the ketchup. And helping our neighbor clean up when their Dr. Pepper gets knocked over. Food. Life. Yum.
more YSF blog posts here.
Basic Religion Test Stumps Many Americans
Recent Comments