Jesus took the bread, said the blessing, broke the bread and gave it to his disciples. The breaking of the bread, being one of the actions of Jesus at the Last Supper, is central to our understanding of the Eucharist.
The shape of the celebration of the Eucharist is based upon the actions of Jesus at the Last Supper and so the breaking of the bread is a core element of that celebration. Jesus gave his disciples not just bread, but BROKEN BREAD, bread broken into pieces so that they could all have a part of the one loaf.
Yet, in the course of history, the breaking of the bread had become insignificant in the celebration of the Eucharist – and unfortunately that can still be the case! This action was seen as having only a practical purpose. So it is that our liturgical practice neglected the element of our liturgy which corresponded to the breaking action of Jesus.
St Luke in his Gospel and in the Acts of the Apostles named the Eucharist, the breaking of the bread (Lk 24.13-35; Acts of the Apostles 2.42, 46; 20. 7 &11; 27.35).
The breaking of the bread in our present liturgy is accompanied by the words (said or sung): Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us, have mercy on us, grant us peace. This joining of the breaking of the bread and the Lamb of God takes us inside the meaning of the Eucharist itself.
All the actions of Jesus at the Last Supper are transformed by his accompanying words: ‘This is my body, given for you’ and ‘This is the cup of My blood, the blood of the new and eternal covenant which is poured out for you and for all for the forgiveness of sins’. These words unite the action of Jesus at the Last Supper to his death on the cross. They are his giving over of himself to what he will do and what will be done to him the next day. We can compare the relationship between those words and his death to the relationship between the marriage ceremony and the life in which the spouses will live out that commitment.
And so, the breaking of the bread as part of the Last Supper is related to the death of Jesus on the cross. Our action done now in his memory, relates not just to the Last Supper but through it to his death. The words of Jesus wash through all his actions and are transformed by them. The ritual meal no longer refers to the Jewish Passover but to the Passover of Jesus through death into resurrection.
Before Vatican II’s renewal of the liturgy – and often still today – the piece of transformed bread was too small to be able to convey the original meaning of the action, as well as that, the broken bread was consumed only by the priest, not shared by the people. The people were – and are – given small, circular hosts, which obviously were not part of the one broken bread. This involves a diminishment of the meaning of the Eucharist.¹
The breaking of the bread is not an independent action but is immediately related to communion; it forms part of the action and meaning of communion. Communion by its very nature is not just an individual’s communion with the risen Lord, but the communion of all gathered with him and in him. The Eucharistic presence of Jesus is about drawing all into communion with each other which is celebrated in the sharing in the one loaf.
Early on in the celebration of the liturgy, communion followed on immediately from the breaking of the bread, which made their relationship clearer. The Lord’s Prayer and the Rite of Peace are later additions to the communion rite. Still, in the present Milanese Liturgy, the breaking of the bread occurs immediately after the Eucharistic Prayer, which is a relic of the earlier order.
The Roman Missal in its introduction to the Mass, called the General Instruction,² is taking the church towards a reappreciation of the breaking of the bread. It states: “By reason of the sign, it is required that the material for the Eucharistic celebration truly have the appearance of food. Therefore, it is desirable that the Eucharistic Bread, even though unleavened and made in traditional form, be fashioned in such a way that the priest at Mass with the people is truly able to break it into parts and distribute these to at least some of the faithful. However, small hosts are not at all excluded when the large number of those receiving communion or other pastoral reasons call for them” (no.321). It would seem to imply that there needs to a sufficient reason for the use of small hosts.
In principle, the people should be receiving pieces of one bread at communion. A point that St Paul makes in his Letter to the Corinthians: “As there is one bread, so we, though many, are one body, for we all share in the one bread” (I Cor. 10.17).
¹ For over a millennium, it was unusual for the laity to receive communion. The Mas tended to be seen as the business of the priest alone. From the 1200’s on, the reservation of the Eucharist and devotional practices regarding the Eucharist became popular. This tended to create a mentality which withdrew the Eucharistic species out of their proper context of the celebration of the Mass. This mentality remains common among many Catholic people.
² This is at the beginning of the Roman Missal. There is also a publication of it in booklet form: The General Instruction of the Roman Missal. Strathfield, NSW: St Pauls Publications, 2012.
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