In today’s gospel, Jesus calls himself the “living bread that has come down from Heaven.”
As Catholics, that living bread is what Pope Francis has called our “identity card” is the foundation of our Catholic belief that Jesus Christ is truly present—the “Real Presence” of his body and blood—in the consecrated elements of the bread and wine. Metaphorically, we renew our identity card when we partake of a “Holy Communion.”
When we contemplate this living bread that has come down from Heaven that is our identity card as Catholics and which we receive when we make a Holy Communion, we might first contrast it with the “dead bread” that has come up from the Earth.
“Dead bread” that “has come up from the Earth”?
Yes, indeed!
Some what may appear to be “contrary” facts first:
- Bread is the oldest food that doesn’t require foraging or hunting.
- Bread has been essential to human history since as far back as 14.6 and 11.6 millennia ago.
- Bread is indispensable for life, a key element of human survival and the formation of society, always playing an integral role in daily life.
- Bread is ubiquitous in history, symbolic of culture and economics, politics and society, wealth and poverty, war and peace, aesthetics and heath, as well as satiety and hunger.
- Historians credit bread with creating the foundation of modern society as well as providing structure and order to daily life. Without bread, it has been observed, civilization wouldn’t exist as it’s known today.
- Today in the United States, we’re told that bread—especially whole meal bread—provides an important source of dietary fiber. It’s purported to assist in regulating the digestive system, controlling both blood sugar and cholesterol levels, and making people feel fuller for longer.
Then, too, there’s this factoid: Did you know that the most famous, mass produced bread to date isn’t “Wonder Bread” but “Hovis”? Richard “Stoney” Smith founded the brand in 1886 in Macclesfield Cheshire, England. Smith patented a process for steam cooking bread that preserved the wheat germ, especially the several types of vitamin B found in wheat germ. Smith held a contest to name his invention. A fellow by the name of Herbert Grime won the contest, deriving the brand name “Hovis” from the Latin “hominis vir,” meaning “strength of man.”
Yet, important as bread has been historically and continues to be today—especially whole meal bread—the simple fact is that all bread derives from below, that is, from the Earth. As a consequence, bread may be likened to Good Friday in that it doesn’t give life but only sustains it, that is, as long as there’s life to sustain. Absent life, there’s absolutely no need for bread.
Think about it: When we’re hungry, we may long for bread; yet, it’s effects are only temporary, providing nourishment for a limited duration. The simple fact is that bread—whether or not it’s consumed—returns to the Earth, just as has everyone who has consumed any form of bread since its discovery as far back as perhaps 14.6 millennia ago.
Hence, “Good Friday, dead bread.” Like everything human beings create, bread also has a shelf life.
With that as background, we heard Jesus teach his disciples in today’s gospel to long for what he called “living bread,” and specifically, the “true bread that comes down from Heaven.” This is the bread that gives life and returns both itself and those who consume it not to the Earth but to Heaven from whence it came.
Think: “Easter bread”—the bread that raises those who consume it from death to life. This is the true bread makes the Risen Lord present and living within us, nourishing those who partake of it not with dietary fiber but spiritual fiber filling them with joy and love. This bread—“Easter bread”—also makes it possible to make the Risen Lord present and living among us as those who partake of it are nourished and strengthened to forgive others, filling them with joy and love!
For centuries, cultures across the globe had celebrated Easter Sunday with a special Easter bread. All are made with yeast and sugar, similar to a Jewish challah. In Bulgaria, they have kozunak; in Russia, the Ukraine, Moldova, and Romania, paska; in Slovenia, it’s called “velikonocni kruhki”; in Greece, artos or tsoureki; in Czechoslovakia, Easter bread is called kolach or mazanek; in Poland and Belarusia, babka; in the Netherlands, stol; in Germany, osterbrot; in Croatia, pinca; in Italy, pizza di Pasqua; in Britain, hot cross bun; in Portugal, folar; and, in Spain, hornazo. Some Easter breads are shaped in the form of crosses, flowers, and braids which lie flat while some others tower like a cake. This bread is intended to display a message of faith rather than solely to be consumed.
Easter bread represents the true bread which has come down from Heaven, baked not in an oven but risen from the tomb after three days and perceived not with physical eyes but with the eyes of faith. Strengthened by this bread, what faith sees is what God sees: Humanity as God has created them and what God hopes they will become, pure as the driven snow and not as the forces of this world sully it as snow melts and returns to the Earth from whence its substance came.
As Jesus taught, this is the true bread—the “Bread of Life”—which nourishes the heart, making it capable of feeling gratitude, of experiencing joy and love, of dreaming of possibilities, and of trusting and respecting others in their imperfection. This is the bread that, when consumed, impels those who are nourished by it to work miracles. How? By bringing joy, love, and forgiveness to a world that’s desperate for both.
Did you notice in the list of nations and the names of their “Easter breads,” there was no mention of the United States? That’s because our nation—whose people are, for the most part, a nation of immigrants—doesn’t have a national “Easter Bread.”
This helps to explain why there are so many “sleepy” Catholics in the United States who don’t reflect upon this mystery of our faith, what in Latin is called “Corpus Christi” (the “Body and Blood of Christ”). For “sleepy” Catholics, Sunday Mass is an “obligation” and the bread is, for them, a white wafer. It’s devoid of any real nourishment, perhaps a symbolic representation of the Last Supper on Holy Thursday or a fond childhood memory of when they made their First Holy Communion both of which diminish the mystery itself. And, just like “death bread,” that wafer has no effect upon the lives of “sleepy” Catholics and returns to the Earth, just as they also will. For “sleepy” Catholics, Good Friday is the end; there is no Easter Sunday.
For “WOKE” Catholics, “Easter bread” is the Real Presence of the Risen Lord, the reception of which a “Holy Communion”—a moment to invite the Risen Lord, who is always by their side and always with them, into their hearts. This is the “life giving” bread with has come down from Heaven, uniting “WOKE” Catholics with their parents and grandparents as well as their families and communities who taught them and helped them to appreciate the difference their Catholic faith makes in their lives. “WOKE” Catholics anticipate and live each day as an Easter Sunday, not a Good Friday…and there are “leftovers” so no one will ever go hungry and become spiritually malnourished. As we heard in today’s gospel:
And when the leftover fragments were picked up, they filled twelve wicker baskets.
“WOKE” Catholics come each Sunday not to fulfill an obligation but to renew and strengthen their life in the Risen Lord because their desire is to be His image and likeness in their marriages and families as well as at their schools and places of work, among others. Their goal isn’t merely to “receive” the Bread of Life but to allow it to transform them so they “reveal” the Risen Lord in all they say and do during the week.
Now, while that’s an impossible task because “WOKE” Catholics, after all, are imperfect human creatures, the nourishment and strength they receive from the Bread of life makes it possible for them not only to continue trying to achieve what’s impossible for mere human beings but also to pick themselves up and dust themselves off when they fall short of their goal. Yet, day by day, week by week, month by month, and year by year, “WOKE” Catholics actually do become increasingly more like the Risen Lord as their hearts transform into his heart and they make it possible, as Jesus did, for others to experience the joy, gratitude, and forgiveness they experience by actually living what the Catholic faith teaches.
As Jesus taught his disciples:
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.
In this way, a “Holy Communion” celebrates the presence of the Risen Lord in our midst who unites us in God our Father, Jesus our Brother, and the Holy Spirit our Paraclete. Yes, this is the truth bread which has come down from Heaven and is our “identity card,” as Pope Francis has observed, making of us one family whose singular law is love and whose singular way of life is gratitude to God for His many blessings…beginning first and foremost with life.
That provides our challenge from today’s scripture readings: To learn to make a “Holy Communion” next Sunday.
That will require each of us to make this mystery of our Catholic faith more concrete each day this week. To this end:
- Take the photo of your first Holy Communion out of your photo album and position it on the nightstand next to your bed.
- Upon awaking each morning this week, conduct this memento mori: Take a moment to contemplate that photograph, recalling the meaning of that day. Allow the feelings of mystery, awe, and wonder you felt to rise up within—perhaps all these feelings spurred by the question “What will it feel like to receive the Body of Christ?” Then, give thanks to God for this “Easter bread.”
- Before doing anything else, identify one way you will be the living presence of the Risen Lord—his image and likeness—for one person that day. That person could be a spouse, a child, or a sibling; that person could be a relative, neighbor, friend, classmate, or co-worker. That person could be someone you serendipitously run into at the Wawa or Walmart, grocery or drug store, or fast-food place or restaurant. It really doesn’t matter who or where. The point is: To be consciously aware that you are the presence of the Risen Lord in that person’s life—“the living bread which has come down from Heaven—who God has sent to say a good word, to share some joy and hope, to offer forgiveness, to lift a burden, and the like.
- At the end of each day, chronicle that experience on a piece of paper or in a computer file or notebook and give thanks to God for the opportunity to have been a vessel of God’s goodness.
- Next Sunday before coming to Mass to make a “Holy Communion,” read through those notes that have chronicled your week of learning to be a “WOKE” Catholic who is the “bread of life” and bring that gift to Mass, offering it to God and giving thanks—in Greek, “eucharisteo”—as did St. Paul when writing to Timothy:
I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, that He considered me faithful and appointed me to service. I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a violent man; yet because I had acted in ignorance and unbelief, I was shown mercy. And the grace of our Lord overflowed to me, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. This is a trustworthy saying, worthy of full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst. But for this very reason I was shown mercy, so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display His perfect patience as an example to those who would believe in Him for eternal life for having been found worthy. Now to the King eternal, immortal, and invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. (1 Timothy 1: 12-17)
Practiced regularly, this spiritual discipline will awaken within each of us a greater awareness of this great mystery of our Catholic faith—the Real Presence of the Risen Lord. Gradually, we will awaken from being “sleepy” Catholics and become “WOKE” Catholics who don’t waste our time living a “telescope faith” looking for the God somewhere up in the sky. Instead, we will be rooting our days more consciously in what Isaiah prophesied on Christmas Eve—“He shall be named ‘Emmanuel,’ which means ‘God is with us’”—and this week, in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist who promised his disciples, “I will be with you…until the end of time.”
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