Jesus tells us that bread is his body. I think I experienced that for the first time while making challah for one of my classes earlier in the semester. It was a labor of love and of neighbors. Nameless, unknown people grew the wheat and made the flour. Chickens gave up their eggs. Cows gave up their milk. My professor made the starter. Someone helped me roll out the dough, while others helped me to make snakes out of dough. My fiancée helped me braid it. Many people helped me eat it.

The body of Jesus is not in the physical bread, but in the relationship built through it. I was able to connect with so many people through this single loaf of bread. In eating that bread, I and all the others were directly connected with each person who helped put it together.

I think there is something very meaningful about the fact that Jesus did not bake the bread he broke for the disciples. His “body” was built by servants, people who do not even get mentioned in that text, and people we often do not encounter or respect in our world today. The people who pull their resources together to create this final product, bread — the people are what creates the body of Christ. We are active participants in his gift to us.

What does this mean for us as a campus? I think that intentional community is something that we talk a lot about but could always do more to make a reality.

Parker Palmer wrote that community needs conflict and is destroyed by competition. I think this is absolutely the case. In order for us to be in community, we need to be in conflict, not competition.

I think that one way to improve this community with conflict is for people who are groups of friends to get together as a whole and talk about what is wrong. This is something that takes place in individual friendships and romantic relationships, why would it not take place in communal relationships?

In addition, doing this over a meal would bring us together as that body. One idea is to have family-style meals at the cafeteria every so often. This would bring a greater sense of community and encourage sharing and dialogue.

All of this to say, Jesus’ body is made of all of us. Let’s build that body strong and work on our communal relationships, and let’s remember that food brings us together.