I was probably six years old when I watched our farm’s newest stray cat eat her premature, stillborn kittens. She ate them one at a time as they were born, pink and limp and hairless. Her act of cannibalism was (as cannibalism usually is) an act of survival. The smell of dead kittens would attract predators, and she would be in danger. She was weak from pregnancy and birth, and she took this nourishment and eliminated the extra threat.

Survival cannibalism includes plane crash and shipwreck situations. We have a cultural fascination with the Donner Party and the Uruguayan rugby team. I expect it’s because we wonder — even while shoving the question to the corner of our minds — what would I do?

Pathological cannibalism refers to the rogue criminal, and a few names may rise in your minds. Again — we’re horrified, even as we can’t look away. Cannibalism with cultural permission can be called “institutional cannibalism.” Cannibalism can be of a friend, but more often, a foe. 

Is communion in Catholic mass (or any believer in the literal presence of Christ in the Eucharist) an example of institutional cannibalism? Christian love-feasts, including agape meals, were accused by outsiders of cannibalism (communion) and orgies (feetwashing). Pliny the Younger, Tertullian and other contemporaries defended the celebrations as “harmless” and “chaste.”

What does communion mean to you? How do the ingredients of the elements (wheat and wine, gluten-free and juice, symbolically or literally Christ) impact the meaning in your spiritual and faith practice?

I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me.  (John 6:48-57, NRSV)

If you tend to take this passage symbolically, I invite you to try reading it literally. If you tend to take it literally, I invite you to try reading it symbolically. I hope this thought experiment makes you more curious about communion. I hope you will share communion with a faith community this Lent and that Christ will be present in the way you most need.

Along with the true presence of Christ, the Roman Catholic Church insists that communion bread must contain gluten. I don’t find the reasons spiritually inspiring, but I am quite moved by the nuns who developed a low-gluten communion bread, approved by the Roman Catholic Church.

Watch a 5-minute video of their story, including this moving moment with Sister Heschmeyer.

“What the scientists were telling us what we were trying to do was impossible,“ Heschmeyer said. “If you add wheat starch and water you get glue. Or if you bake it, it gets very hard, which is what we found out. It was a certain intrigue for me when they said it was impossible. I said, ‘Oh, that’s a challenge!’ And so, if the Holy Spirit was asking people to ask us to do it, the Holy Spirit had something in mind. There was just something in me that just said go with this thing — we could do it — although I had no idea that 12 years later I would still be doing it or trying to do it.”

I’m guessing I’m a typical Anabaptist. I don’t believe communion elements contain literal blood or flesh of Jesus, and I don’t care if they are made of wheat and wine. “The true presence of Christ” is growing on me this year, though. To me, though, that doesn’t mean the literal blood and body of Jesus. But I recall the fierce warriors who would eat the heart (or another part) of their enemy, to take on their courage.

What are the characteristics of Jesus that you need this season? Savor them, as you chew.

Gluten-free communion bread options 

Grain-free wafers (makes about 30 wafers)

Ingredients

• 2 cups almond flour
• 1 egg
• 1 pinch salt

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Blend all ingredients in food processor, blender or by hand.
3. Roll out the dough between parchment paper to ⅛ inch. Peel off the top layer of parchment paper.
4. Cut into servings (square or as you wish) with a  knife.
5. Place onto cookie sheet, including the lower layer of parchment paper.
6. Bake ten minutes or until the edges start to turn golden. Turn partway through baking, if your oven heats unevenly.
7. When cool, store tightly (in a bag with air squeezed out, or in a tub with waxed or parchment paper under the lid, etc). 
8. Freeze extras between communion events.

For a richer, tastier communion bread, try this gluten-free option. It makes about 60 pieces.

 Ingredients

• 1 ¾ cups gluten-free pastry flour
• 1 pinch salt  
• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, roughly chopped and chilled
• 1 egg yolk

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Place flour and salt in a large bowl , and whisk to combine well (or use food processor). Add the butter, and toss or pulse.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg, and then add it to the dough. (At this point, you can wrap and bag the dough and refrigerate up to five days.)
4. Roll between two pieces of parchment paper, or roll on (a gluten-free) floured board to about ⅙ inch. Cut into squares or your desired shape.
5. Bake for about 10 minutes, or until edges are brown. If (like mine) your oven doesn’t bake evenly, turn partway through.