Communion and Lovers

I had lunch with Lisa and Ted yesterday, they were married last year, they are still very much in love, in that delightful way, normally reserved to the young, Lisa is in her 40s, Ted is in his 60s, a retired CIA agent, troubled by America's middle east policy, he is quite fascinating on the subject. We went to a rather good Notting Hill Italian restuarant. What struck me was that lovers always seem to want to feed one another, to put food into one anothers mouths, Lisa kept wanting to put food in Ted's mouth.

I think that when we speak of Holy Communion, we forget that the priest stands in the place of Christ, the bridegroom; the communicant in the place of the Church, the bride. I was struck that communion in the hand looses something about the intimacy of this sacred act: communion is about Lovers.

See Fr Tim Finigan for some early evidence for communion on the tongue.