If there is one thing that makes a Catholic a Catholic it is the Eucharist. Receiving the body and blood of Jesus in Holy Communion is central to the way we connect with God. Not only at regular Sunday worship do we receive communion but at Catholic weddings, at Catholic funerals, at Catholic graduation ceremonies, at Baptism and Confirmation, at daily Eucharist, at home masses. When we are sick or shut-in someone brings us communion for our health and salvation. Our children dress up in special outfits to receive their First Holy Communion. When we are dying we are given our last Holy Communion called Viaticum, food for the journey toward God. The Eucharist occupies the heart of Catholic life because it connects us with the real presence of Jesus in all the circumstances of our lives. In the gospel reading describing the gift of the Eucharist at the Last Supper Jesus says that the bread that is broken and the cup that is shared in particular connect us with his redemptive suffering on the cross. “This is the blood of the covenant which will be shed for the many.” Receiving communion is our act of faith that Jesus’ life, death and resurrection have an effect in our lives. Looking closely at the scene in the Last Supper as St. Mark described it, we find a four-step process in Jesus’ gift of the Eucharist: “he took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, gave it to them.” We can use those four steps to gauge how we are changed as a result of the Eucharist.
First, Jesus took the bread. For us to be a Eucharistic people we must experience ourselves as taken by Jesus, or, as the spiritual writer Henri Nouwen put it, to be “chosen.” In the Eucharist Jesus has chosen us to be his very own people. Most of us know what it’s like NOT to be chosen. How many right fielders are out there? In little league they have to let you play so I ended up in right field. I didn’t feel very chosen. We don’t get the part in the play. We don’t make the varsity. We’re turned down for the scholarship. The job offer goes to someone else. But as we gather around the table of the Lord we discover we are chosen. Just as Israel was a people peculiarly God’s own, we as the Body of Christ belong to Christ particularly. Jesus invites us just as we are to a dinner held in his honor. We are not chosen because of how wonderful we are but because of how wonderful God is. God has named us and claimed us at our baptism. When we receive Holy Communion we are taken into his loving arms.
Next, Jesus blessed. We are blessed in waking up this morning and starting on our way. We are blessed in the undeserved and unmerited forgiveness that God bestows upon us. We are blessed in our very being, created in the divine image, made as we are, the children of God. The Lord who makes the sun to shine on the just and the unjust, who makes the rain to fall on good and bad alike, is blessing us right here and right now. His blessing is coming through. At the Eucharist we are blessed with divine nourishment. One of the most wonderful aspects of Holy Communion is that it is food, the stuff that sustains a human life. We can’t live long without food and drink. That Jesus blessed the bread and wine serves as a living reminder that the very stuff of life, the basics of human existence, something as simple as taking a bite is charged with the presence of God. The very ordinariness of bread and wine assures us of the blessing woven throughout our everyday existence.
Then, in a somewhat forceful gesture, Jesus broke the bread. We imitate that gesture at the “Lamb of God” where the host is broken in two. Unfortunately we know all too well what it means to be broken. We all have our broken places—our disappointments, wounds, pain, sadness, grief. We are human beings and we all suffer. It might be an illness, maybe a family problem, perhaps some financial catastrophe or a sin we didn’t even know we were capable of committing. Whatever it is, every human being reaches that point in their life when they understand that their plan, their expectation, their desire for themselves is not going to be attained. That feeling of dashed hopes and dreams breaks us down. Like Jesus in Gethsemane we ask God if there is a plan “B” since we don’t like how things are going. But it is exactly in the moments of brokenness that we learn to surrender to God’s will and discover that all will be well. Breaking is part of the Eucharist because God is with us in our brokenness. Holy Communion is not just the bread of angels but also medicine for the sin-sick soul.
Jesus last gesture was giving, giving away the broken bread and shared cup to others. If you think about it, Jesus could not have shared the bread around the table if it wasn’t broken. Because we are broken we can share our lives as well. Only those who know themselves as chosen and felt the blessing even in our brokenness can know what it means to give it away. God uses all that we are, all that we have received, all that has happened to us so that we will reach out a hand in love and service to the people God has woven into our lives. As the body of Christ we are meant to care for one another, to be given to one another. As the body of Christ we understand that faith is not merely to get me to heaven but equips me to get us to heaven. As the body of Christ we are meant to give as we have been given. We are the body of Christ chosen, blessed, broken and given. Let us become who we are in how we live.
