"And
they told about the things that had happened on the road and how He was known
to them in the breaking of bread." Luke 24:35
Catechism of the
Catholic Church: 1329: The Breaking of Bread, because Jesus
used this rite, part of a Jewish meat when as master of the table he blessed
and distributed the bread, above
all at the Last Supper. It
is by this action that his disciples will recognize him after his Resurrection, and it is this expression that the
first Christians will use to designate their Eucharistic assemblies; by doing so they signified that all who
eat the one broken bread, Christ, enter into communion with him and form but
one body in him.
Today we look at
the part of the Mass known as the Fraction, where the priest breaks the host in
half. This seemingly minor action is actually rich in tradition and symbolism.
In a traditional Jewish home, the head of the house always broke the bread and
said a blessing to begin the family meal, so that all present could share in
the one bread now broken. In the New Testament, Jesus blessed the bread, broke it,
gave it to His disciples, and fed thousands of people (Matthew 14:19; 15:36;
Mark 6:41; 8:6; Luke 9:16). Sound familiar? It should, because those are the
very words the gospel writers use to explain what Jesus did at the last supper
when He instituted the Eucharist. Notice it is always the same pattern: it is
Jesus who blesses and breaks the bread, and then He gives it to His disciples
to eat and distribute. Even after His resurrection, Jesus walked the road to
Emmaus with a few disciples, then sat with them, blessed and broke bread, and
gave it to them, at which moment they knew Him. Might we, too, at this point in
the Mass, recall the blessing, breaking and distribution practice Jesus
instituted, and prepare our hearts to receive the broken body of Christ from
His priests and extraordinary ministers, knowing we are part of an ancient rite
as well as a practice Jesus Himself chose to give Himself to others, to us.
Edward Sri tells us
in his book “A biblical walk through the Mass, Ascension Press, 2011): The
Acts of the Apostles describes how the early Church gathered for the breaking
of bread – a term which we have already seen was associated with the Eucharist
in the gospels… Long before the building of churches…the very first Christians
in Jerusalem worshipped God by attending the Temple together and gathering for the
breaking of bread in their homes (Acts 2:46)… years later and far from
Jerusalem, the Christians following St. Paul in Troas gathered with Him on the
first day of the week “to break bread” (Acts 20:7,11). St. Paul…also saw rich
symbolism in the ritual of many people partaking of the same loaf of bread. For
Paul, this points to the deep unity Christians share when we partake of the one
Body of Christ: “The Bread which we break, is it not a participation in the
body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for
we all partake of the one bread” (1 Corinthians 10:16-17).
Prayer of the Priest:
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living
God, who, by the will of the Father and the work of the Holy Spirit, through
your Death gave life to the world, free me by this, your most holy Body and
Blood, from all my sins and from every evil; keep me always faithful to your
commandments, and never let me be parted from you.
