The Body and Blood of Christ
BREAD OF LIFE
The
Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, or
In
the Eucharist, bread is accepted, offered,
consecrated, broken, and given out.
Bread
is accepted from the people. Someone,
on behalf of all present brings it forward to the priest celebrant. Bread is
the staple food of millions. It represents human life, especially the lives of
us who present it. We put ourselves on that plate as bread.
The
celebrant offers this bread to God
the Father on behalf of all, as our gift of ourselves. He prays the Jewish
blessing: "Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation. Through your
goodness we have this bread to offer which earth has given and human hands have
made", with the Christian addition, "It will become for us the bread
of life.”
The
same bread is consecrated to be the
flesh of Jesus Christ. The celebrant says: "Before he was given up to
death, a death he freely accepted, he took bread and gave you thanks. He broke
the bread, gave it to his disciples and said, `Take this, all of you, and eat
it. This is my Body which will be given up for you'."
We
are celebrating life that is given through dying to self. Dying is the price we
have to pay for this kind of life. The bread is Jesus' flesh, that is, his
body, his person, given in order to give life to everyone. The bread, then, is
Jesus himself who laid down his life for us by dying of his own free choice.
The
bread that is Jesus Christ obtains its life-giving power only through death,
his and ours. The life that Jesus gives is bought very dearly, by living and
dying with his frame of mind.
The
consecrated bread is broken into
pieces. This is a death-symbol. It symbolises his body, broken in death. The
celebrant places a piece of the bread in the chalice, while he prays: "May
this mingling of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ bring eternal life
to us who receive it."
Jesus
is the true bread of life. This is only because he was crucified and rose again;
he was broken and made whole again. Now he can give life that lasts and never
fails.
The
consecrated pieces are given out as
food for all present. We say "Amen" to “The Body of Christ”, meaning,
"Yes. This is the sacramental Body of Christ, and I am the Body of Christ,
and we all are the Body of Christ." The bread of life must be bread broken
and handed round to fill up the needs of everyone.
Jesus
invites us all to become that life-giving bread, accepted, offered, consecrated, broken and given out, so that others may live by us.
The
price of being bread of life is great. We must be eaten, even chewed up. We are
given for others, given to others. Our flesh is given for them, our blood shed for
them. Violence may be done to us. Death by the hands of others could be
involved. This is so for many Christians at this very moment. Certainly, death
to self-centredness is required of us all.
The
Eucharist places us as broken pieces in the hands of everyone we meet. Give
yourself, don't take back the gift, but give generous service without sad
afterthoughts.
Can
we pay the price? There is more to sharing in the life of Jesus than a
comfortable Catholic life and coming forward to receive the consecrated bread.
The symbolic act is filled out with practical consequences.
We
become the bread of life for others when we share in Jesus' offering his life
to God and for people, being broken and dying to self in the process. We are
given what we need in order to do this, through our hope of sharing Christ's
new life. May receiving the Eucharist have its full effect in our lives.