"Man can not live by bread alone", is a phrase I have heard over and over again through my life. I am always tempted to say "Maybe not, but I will give it jolly good try." I love bread. From the very first moment of mixing yeast with water and that beery aroma develops, through kneading it, to watching it erupt into it's finished self in the oven. When it emerges hot and steaming filling my kitchen with that lovely fresh bread smell, it is irresistible. It is to me a temptation too far. As much as I know bread is best left for at least an hour. It is broken and spread with butter that melts the instant it touches the bread. My teeth then crunch through that gloriously thick crust. It is a pleasure that I am unable to leave sitting there and maybe shows how bad my will power really is.
Bread does therefore play a huge part in my life, whether it is baking it, shopping for it (as above) or eating it. It is part of every corner of my life, it is even a central part of my faith. When we started college I attended a coffee group on Friday mornings. It was customary to come up with some kind of activity that demonstrates what our faith means to us. We spent many mornings doing crafty things. I was challenged for a few days when it came to my turn as to how I could demonstrate the importance of the Eucharist in my life. It came to me one morning that we could bake and break bread.
We gathered together and I spread the dough equally between us, making sure those who were absent also had some bread dough to be shaped by us as well. How we shaped our piece of dough was up to each us. We placed them next to each other on the tray and left them to prove and bake. While the bread was doing it's work, we said morning prayer and I explained the purpose of the bread in relation to me and my faith. To me baking bread like this, is like coming to Church (and indeed like going to college) . You start of as individuals, you join together as a community, grow and break away to share what you have learnt in the time together. In sharing the bread we are sharing a meal (a small meal but a meal none the less). This means dividing between us all something that gives us life and in doing so it also gives us fellowship. The Eucharist does this as well. We come together to share our spiritual meal, and essential part of our developing faith and discipline as Christians. We come to share Christ between us all and then take him out into our separate lives.
I try to attend Mass as often as I can, but by no means as often as I would like. I find that when I do not I get impatient and struggle with what life throws at me. Spending time in prayer and most especially at Mass gives me the space to sort out things in my head, share what I need to with Christ and receive his forgiveness and carry away his blessing.
So while we may not be able to live by bread alone, it forms an essential base on which so many parts of our lives can be grown. So next time you break bread and share it, think of all the different meanings it has in your life. Most of all remember that as you share this bread, a man once broke bread as a symbol of his body which he broke for us.
"Who, in the same night he was betrayed,
took bread and gave you thanks;
he broke it, gave it to his disciples, saying:
Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you;
Do this in remembrance of me."
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