I teach a junior-level college course entitled “Feast or Famine?  The Mass in the Modern Age.”  The objective of this theology class is to study the origins and development of the Catholic Eucharist throughout the ages, questioning whether or not the contemporary liturgy provides the same satisfying nourishment of the meals shared by the first Christians in the presence of the Risen Lord.  The Meal that Reconnects, by Mary McGann, provides for me a more challenging way of scrutinizing the Eucharist.  Her emphasis on renewal is concentrated not so much on liturgical performance (i.e. how to celebrate the ritual better), but rather upon a basic integrity of eating (i.e. understanding the food crisis as a spiritual crisis).  This is an important book for anyone studying the Eucharist in the twenty-first century.

            McGann’s work is divided into three parts.  Part One examines “eating as relationship” and explores the significance of food within the contexts of Jesus’s ministry and the early church.  Part Two studies the way in which the modern industrial food system has produced broken relationships, not only resulting in greater hunger on the planet, but also threatening to destroy Earth’s ecosystem.  Part Three offers hope, as McGann works to demonstrate how the Eucharist has the ability to “reconnect,” first by restoring the “foundational meal character” of eucharistic dining (chapter 8), and secondly by truthfully encountering the “ecological, social, and economic” commitments that are intertwined with celebrating the Eucharist (chapter 9).  The author concludes:  “Eating and being eaten by Jesus invite a transformation of those who participate:  to receive and embrace the world as given by God and to form their identities on the needs and joys, the hungers and struggles of others and of the body as a whole.  The culture of consumption—of having—is replaced by an economy of giving and co-abiding” (201).

            While other theologians have written extensively on the inherent connection between the Eucharist and justice, McGann’s book offers an innovative look into the world of industrial agriculture.  In this area, her research leaves no stone unturned (or better, leaves no row unhoed) as she describes how modern food production controlled by major corporations has had disastrous consequences in our world today.  In particular, she delves into the agricultural project initiated by the US Agency for International Development in the late 1960s dubbed “Green Revolution” that was designed to feed the world.  Instead of alleviating hunger, the high-yield approach to farming introduced by this plan had the opposite effect:  “mass producibility, cheapness, uniformity of size and shape, and year-round availability do not support the health of people eating the food, the culture in which it is consumed, the environment in which it is produced, or, most especially, the quality of the food itself” (69).  Big businesses may accumulate a vast profit from “processed food,” but human hunger continues to escalate around the world.  McGann’s exploration of the industrial food system is both enlightening and frightening at the same time. 

            For this reason, The Meal that Reconnects is a book that calls for discussion.  Fortunately, each chapter provides questions for reflection that could easily be the prompts for small study groups or classroom discussions.  McGann’s overarching objective in this book is to put the celebration of the Eucharist in touch with issues of food justice and ecological stewardship.  How we celebrate the Eucharist ought to translate into concern for knowing where the food we eat comes from and how it was produced.  The author writes:  “Embracing a vision of Earth’s value and wholeness in eucharistic celebration and welcoming Earth’s creatures as partners in the assembly’s praise are vital to how communities give witness at this critical intersection with ecological, social, and economic life” (179).  While this book contains many helpful suggestions for enhancing the Eucharist as a vehicle to challenge the injustices of today’s industrial food system, individual Christians and communities of believers will be inspired to be creative in discerning how to better be disciples of change.

            As stated at the outset, The Meal that Reconnects is an important book for theology in the twenty-first century.  Each semester I conclude my course on the Eucharist with a basic question on the final exam:  Do you believe the Mass to be a feast or a famine?  From this point forward, students’ evaluation of eucharistic renewal will be informed by reading McGann’s valuable text.