What is the longest anyone has survived without drinking? It's a grisly thought.
More mundane is the recollection of many shared meals cancelled and lots of eating and drinking on one's own in this covid era.
What about sharing food together, and drinking from the same cup? In many culture this is the practice. We share this risk together as one body.
Every week Christians enact a meal in miniature. It's become a ritual not unlike the Lateral Flow Test. It continues in most part because it does connect with a very powerful message (though some such as the Salvation Army have found it too complex.)
Just as not to drink leads to certain suffering and death, not to imbibe the 'life blood' of the creator, in the form of Jesus, is also a mistake. To actually consume his body as food, in a similar way to a baby living on mother's milk, leads to growth, and vitality.
But to ingest Jesus' body is also to ingest the suffering this body faced. It contains both sweetness and bitterness. It is to be consumed with this consideration, and with reverence
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