Many years ago I was in St. Anne’s Parish in Mallet, Louisiana which had been formed to care for the needs of African-American Catholics. Even though there was a “white Church” a few miles away, some of the local white farmers used to come to St.Anne’s because of its convenience. They all sat in the front and they all went to Holy Communion before any of the Black parishioners. The divisions in Church that St. Paul talked about in Corinth persist: divisions due to economics, race, politics, ethnicity, language, etc. For the Apostle, such divisions contradict the very meaning of the Eucharist — that we are all one in Christ. When he tells the story of the institution of the Eucharist as the Last Supper he quotes Jesus: “Do this in remembrance of me.” In context we can see that by quoting Jesus, St. Paul means not so much break the bread and share the cup in rememberance of me but rather, give yourself body and blood to one another to create a community of love and service in remembrance of me. That’s when you have Eucharist.
