A few years ago I tried a gluten-free diet, but under the unpleasantness of the diet allowed myself to be convinced that the separation from others was too onerous a burden, both for myself and the others from whom I was separated.
I now realize that this is only so much bunkum. The fact of the matter is that the symbolism of eating together really has nothing to do with what is eaten. Each proverb about breaking bread is matched by one of sitting down at table together. What is important is that all are sitting together and eating—it is no more necessary that each person eat the same kinds of food than it is that each person eat the same amount of food. Strangeness and rejection only enter into the matter when one or the other group refuses either to sit at table or to eat at all when doing so.
Community, family, and togetherness are often taken to mean "sameness." The fact is that the mystery of unity, as achieved on the natural level through eating together or on the supernatural level by eating the Bread of Life together, addresses plurality as found in diversity. This is not a nod to multiculturalism. The Trinity is one and many, diverse but not distinct. There is no discord or loss in the Trinity, even though the three Persons are not exactly the same (just consider the diversity of Processions). Therefore, this desire to impose unity through sameness is not even excused as an understandable response to the discord caused by the fall. A certain amount of diversity of interests, talents, and so on, existed even before the fall ("man and woman He created them") and is a source of great joy. It is the otherness which calls one out of oneself to delight in another. Diversity of gifts causes interdependency, which then allows love to flourish in ways which cannot be discovered without the occasions which dependency brings about. And considered from the perspective of the fall, being imperfect and mortal, and thus dependent on others is in fact the thing which saves creatures from rejecting love through pride. Each time humans favor pride, they fall flat on their faces very quickly, are forced to turn to others, and then Love has another chance.
