(By Caravaggio - 1601)
“They recognized
Him in the breaking of the bread.” (Lk
24: 31)
On
Breaking Bread
Feast of Corpus Christi, June 10, 2012
Exodus 24:3-8 Hebrews 9:11-15 Mark 14:12-16, 22-26
Alleluia,
alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark
Glory to you, Lord.
On the first day of
the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, Jesus'
disciples said to him, "Where do you want us to go and prepare for you to
eat the Passover?" He sent two of his disciples and said to them, "Go
into the city and a man will meet you, carrying a jar of water. Follow him. Wherever
he enters, say to the master of the house, 'The Teacher says, "Where is my
guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?"' Then he will
show you a large upper room furnished and ready. Make the preparations for us
there." The disciples then went off, entered the city, and found it just
as He had told them; and they prepared the Passover.
While they were eating, He took bread, said the blessing, broke it, gave it to them, and said, "Take it; this is my body." Then He took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, and they all drank from it. He said to them, "This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many. Amen, I say to you, I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God." Then they sang a hymn and went out to the Mount of Olives.
While they were eating, He took bread, said the blessing, broke it, gave it to them, and said, "Take it; this is my body." Then He took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, and they all drank from it. He said to them, "This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many. Amen, I say to you, I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God." Then they sang a hymn and went out to the Mount of Olives.
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord
Jesus Christ.
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Introduction
Still God-with-us
In
His ascension into heaven Jesus promised He would not leave us orphans but
would be with us to the end of time. (Jn 14:14)
He kept his promise by sending us the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. He kept it
also by giving us the Eucharist -- his abiding presence among us. Though
ascended into heaven, Jesus is still Emmanuel
– still God-with-us in the Eucharist.
Communion - food for sinners
With a bit of
nostalgia older Catholics recall the solemn celebration of Corpus Christi. It was a big production: the Eucharist (encased in
an elaborate monstrance and under a portable canopy) solemnly processed through
villages in valleys and hamlets on hills. Three times the procession stopped
along the way for benediction with the Blessed Sacrament.
Corpus Christi is no longer the big production it used to
be. With Vatican II (1959-1962) dramatic changes have taken place in the
Eucharistic life of the Church. In pre-Vatican days on a Sunday morning, only
20 to 30 people out of a packed congregation would rise to receive Communion. They
were the ones who considered themselves in the state of `Sanctifying Grace’ after
making a `good’ sacramental confession. The rest of the faithful (who had not
confessed their `mortal sins,’ or who were divorced and remarried, or who
hadn’t fasted from every speck of food and drink from midnight on) remained nailed to their pews at Communion time. All
that has changed dramatically: now a whole congregation of sinners rises to receive
Communion. It’s a new day in the Eucharistic life of the Church: Communion now is
not a reward for saints but food for sinners on the human journey.
Present in the breaking of the bread
In
pre-Vatican days, the emphasis was on Jesus present
in the bread. At the elevation of the Mass, the
consecrated bread was raised on high, and a bell was rung to make sure everyone
was awake and was looking at Jesus present in the bread. There was a kind of
salvation in gazing upon Jesus present in the bread held on high -- very much
like the salvation that came upon the Israelites when they gazed upon the bronze serpent fashioned by Moses and held on high. (Num. 21:4-9; Jn.
12:32) Some remember also how on big feast days Mass was `climaxed’ with benediction with the Blessed Sacrament;
it was a kind of `frosting’ on the cake[1]. The
Eucharist encased in the monstrance was held on
high, so all could gaze upon Jesus present in the bread.
In this new day, emphasis is on Jesus present in the breaking of
the bread. On
that first Easter morning when two of the disciples were on the road to Emmaus,
they met a stranger. At dusk they looked for lodging, and invited the stranger
to stay and supper with them. At table, the stranger took bread, blessed it,
broke it and gave it to the disciples. And at that moment, Scripture says, “Their
eyes were opened, and they recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread.” (Lk 24:31)
Bread not broken
Karl Jung, the father of modern
psychology, describes the day of his first Communion.
I
awaited the day with eager anticipation, and the day finally dawned. There
behind the altar stood my father in his familiar robes. He read prayers from
the liturgy. On the white cloth covering the altar lay large trays filled with
small pieces of bread which came from the local baker whose goods were nothing
to brag about. I watched my father eat a piece of the bread and then sip the wine
which came from the local tavern. He then passed the cup to one of the old
men. All were stiff, solemn, and it
seemed to me, uninterested. I looked on in suspense, but could not see nor
guess whether anything unusual was going on inside the old men. I saw no
sadness and no joy in them. Then came my turn to eat the bread which tasted
flat, and to sip the wine which tasted sour. After the final prayer all the
people swiftly pealed out of church, neither depressed nor illumined with joy,
but with faces that seemed to say. "Well, that's that." In a minute
or two the whole church was emptied. (Memories,
Dreams, Reflections)
In
the course of the following days it dawned on Jung that nothing had happened on
the day of his first Holy Communion: bread had not really been broken, and
Jesus had not been recognized in the breaking of the bread. Jung found himself saying, "Why, that is not
religion at all. It is, in fact, an absence of God. I must never go back there
again. It’s not life but death that’s there.” (Memories, Dreams, Reflections) Jung’s very first Communion proved to be fatal:
it turned out to be his very last Communion!
Fr. Judge – a great bread-breaker
Franciscan Fr.
Mychal Judge,
(1933-2001) was a compassionate champion of the needy and forgotten of New York
City, and a beloved chaplain of the N.Y. City Fire Department. The story of his incredibly selfless life and heroic death in the line of duty as chaplain of the fire department was one of the first to come out of the horrendous 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan.
Fr. Judge had an
encyclopedic memory for people’s names, birthdays, and passions. He knew
everyone from the homeless to Mayor Giuliani who declared at his funeral that
“The man was a saint.” And though he was a true New Yorker, born and raised in
the City, everybody knew that he lived on entirely different plain of
priorities than most New Yorkers: he was non-acquisitive, unselfish, and
utterly uncomplaining. On
Christmas Eve, he’d walk up
Ninth Avenue, in his brown habit and sandals, carrying a baby doll wrapped in a
towel, to a shelter for abused and homeless women. There he’d place the doll on
a table which served as the altar for Mass, and he’d ask the women, “Where do you think baby Jesus would want to
be tonight, and then he’d answer his own question: “Right here with you, celebrating his
birthday.”
Fr.
Judge did such a wonderful job of breaking bread with the people of New York City and of revealing Jesus in his
bread-breaking that his funeral Mass on September 15,
2001, in St. Francis of Assisi Church, NYC was attended by a sea of 3,000 people! In that
sea of humanity were former President Bill Clinton and New York Senator Hillary
Clinton with daughter Chelsea. And when a few days later a memorial service was held for Fr. Mychal in Good Shepherd Chapel on Ninth
Ave. (an Anglican church)
an endless stream of priests, nuns, lawyers, cops, firefighter, homeless
people, rock-and-rollers, recovering alcoholics, local politicians and middle
age couples from the suburbs came flocking to memorialize this great
bread-breaker.
Bp Untener - a great bread-breaker
Bishop of Saginaw, MI., Kenneth
Edward Untener (1937- 2004) was also
a great bread-breaker. His first words as
bishop to the people of his diocese were: "My name is Ken, and I will be
your waiter for a long, long time.” Then Bp. Untener proceeded to wait upon his
people and break bread for them. He sold the bishop's mansion,
and for the next 24 years lived in 69 rectories. The trunk of his car
became his office.
On the 25th anniversary of Pope Paul VI's encyclical letter Humanae Vitae in 1993 (reaffirming the Church's stand against artificial birth control) Untener used the occasion to keep his promise to be a waiter serving his people. He invited his Church to reopen an honest and transparent discussion on birth control. (His invitation was not well received.) On the issue of divorce, Untener said, “I am not here to condemn divorced people, nor am I here to condone them. I am here to help them. Jesus did not come to condemn or condone the woman caught in adultery; He came to help her.”
On the 25th anniversary of Pope Paul VI's encyclical letter Humanae Vitae in 1993 (reaffirming the Church's stand against artificial birth control) Untener used the occasion to keep his promise to be a waiter serving his people. He invited his Church to reopen an honest and transparent discussion on birth control. (His invitation was not well received.) On the issue of divorce, Untener said, “I am not here to condemn divorced people, nor am I here to condone them. I am here to help them. Jesus did not come to condemn or condone the woman caught in adultery; He came to help her.”
On the day of his episcopal consecration
Untener told his people "My
name is Ken, and I will be your waiter for a long, long time.” He did such a wonderful job of breaking bread
in his diocese that a throng of 1800 people attended his funeral Mass. The service evoked tears and laughter,
audible `amens’ and a standing ovation. What a sharp contrast that was
from Jung’s first Communion day, when after the final prayer all the people
swiftly pealed out of church, “neither depressed nor illumined with joy, but
with faces that seemed to say. `Well, that's that.’"
Conclusion
Present in both
Is
Jesus present in the bread, or is He
present in the breaking of the bread?
He’s present in both. Whenever bread has been truly broken, Jesus is present in
that bread-breaking. And the faithful don’t peel out of church saying “Well,
that’s that!” but rather linger on with “tears and laughter, audible `amens’
and a standing ovation.” And very much like Peter on the Mount of
Transfiguration (Mt. 17:4) the faithful cry out, “Oh how good it was for us to
be here at Mass this morning! We’re definitely coming back next Sunday.”
But Jesus is present also in the Bread carried solemnly in Corpus Christi processions through villages in valleys and hamlets on hills, or quietly reposed in tabernacles. It is Jesus present in the tabernacle which makes great cathedrals and small chapels welcomed rest spots for the weary faithful, just as Jacob’s well was a welcomed rest spot for the weary Jesus passing through Samaria. (Jn. 4:6) Sanctuary lamps in cathedrals and chapels, glowing gently and faithfully in the dusk, assure us that we are not alone on the human journey. He who promised “I will be with you always, even to the end of the world” (Mt. 28:20) keeps his promise in the Eucharist.
[1] Benediction immediately after Mass
is now forbidden
