A TABLE FOR ALL: Eucharist as Model for Radical Welcome and Community

Shea Watts (Chicago Theological Seminary, Chicago)

Mahabbah: Journal of Religion and Education
Vol 3, No 1 (2022): MAHABBAH: Journal of Religion and Education, Vol.3, No.1 (January 2022)

This article considers the Eucharist as a framework for communal life. Rather than a place of privilege or exclusion, the table creates an inclusive vision for how the world should be. It is a ritual of imagination and transformation, reaching beyond the symbolic table into a material world of need. Drawing on the work of Clàudio Carvalhaes, as well as the Eucharistic instructions of Jesus and practices of the early church, I explore the political and communal contours of participating in the holy meal. In this way, Eucharist provides nourishment and sustenance for the work of justice in the world.