Following on from where we left off last week, Jesus is, so to speak, ‘broken open’ on the cross (Jn.19.34). His body is given and his blood poured out to establish a new relationship (covenant) between God and human beings. This is ‘the new and eternal covenant’ which is not just ‘for you’, but ‘for all’ or ‘the many’ (all humankind). He gives himself not just for those who believe in him but for all human beings.
He is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world (Jn 1.29 7 37).1 He is the suffering servant of God, who took upon himself the sin of the world (Is.52.13 – 53.12). He is the new paschal lamb whose blood saves all the children of men and women.
The lamb is innocent but led to the slaughter.
John who so emphasizes Jesus as the Lamb of God and who, significantly, has him die at the time when the paschal lambs were being killed for use at the Passover, also highlights his death for all in the account of the meeting of the religious leaders to decide on his death. He has Caiaphas, the high priest, say to those assembled: “You know nothing at all, you have not worked out that it is better that one man should perish for the people than that the whole nation should perish.” (Jn. 11.49-50). John then goes on to comment: “He (Caiaphas) did not speak in his own person, but as high priest of that year, he was prophesying that Jesus was to die for the nation – and not only for the nation, but also to gather together into one the dispersed children of God” (Jn.11.51-52).
As we gather for the Eucharist, we are the first fruits of the ‘dispersed children of God’ – we are the sign and instrument of what God is seeking to bring about among all human beings. The document on the church of the Second Vatican Council speaks of the church in such terms: “Since the church, in Christ, is in the nature of a sacrament – a sign and instrument, that is, of communion with God and of unity among all men (sic)” 2
Because we are the first fruits of the ‘gathered children of God’, we are given broken pieces of one bread. It is by means of this one bread that we are becoming the one body of Christ. The one body of Christ, which, like its master and head, does not close in upon itself, but is the seed of the future which God is seeking to bring about: the reconciliation of all human beings with himself and with each other.
To understand the Eucharist, we cannot separate it from the church. They are to be in living interaction with each other. They are the same thing in two forms: the Eucharist is the action in which we enter into communion with Christ and the church is the communion of life with and in Christ which results from it. When the church celebrates the Eucharist, it is becoming what it is!
The Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world. A deeper and actually more traditional understanding of sin is captured in the phrase ‘sin of the world’. Looking back into the biblical tradition, it becomes clear that sin is not just a matter of individual sins but of a sinfulness which has influence throughout humankind. For the Scriptures, sin is a situation in which humankind finds itself. It is distance from God, as a result of which humankind is caught up with things which take the place of God – idols, whatever form such idols may take. Idolatry is the paradigm of sin.
Human beings are made in the image of God and this echo of God within them gives them an orientation to God. So, they will only find their true selves in relationship to God. Things which take God’s place inevitably lead men and women astray. Sin is missing the mark, going in the wrong direction.6 The things which human beings put in the place of God divide and separate them and set them in competition with each other.
The figurative story of Adam and Eve is an invitation to us to discover this separation from God at work among human beings now. The final form of this story comes about late in the history of the development of the biblical thought. Adam and Eve are us; they are symbolic of humankind as a whole. Individual sinfulness needs to be understood in the context of the sin of the world.
Jesus breaks open this situation; he forges a new path for humanity. He becomes the new human being, bringing into the world a new presence of God which seeks to bring about the reconciliation of human beings with God and each other. The Holy Spirit given by Christ is at work fermenting this newness in all of humankind.
We eat broken bread as a sign of this reconciliation, a sign of this new communion, a sign of peace with God and each other which Jesus forges in his death and resurrection. He is the one, who when he is lifted up will draw all things to himself (Jn.12.31-36).
The breaking of the bread in the liturgy is not an incidental element of the Eucharist, but a crucial moment of its celebration. It is part of the liturgy linked not only to the Last Supper but to the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
There are several practical things which need to be attended to for this part of the liturgy to take its proper place in our celebrations of the Eucharist. The bread we use needs to be able to be broken and be seen to be broken. This in turn needs to be co-ordinated with the singing or saying of the ‘Lamb of God’, so that they occur simultaneously. The symbolic significance of the action needs to be given a suitable explanation. The priest needs to do the breaking with a proper awareness of its importance and its relationship to receiving communion.
1 Note that John’s gospel uses the singular ‘sin’.
2 L.G.1
3 Even though the liturgy speaks of the sins of the world in the plural, the Gospel of John uses the singular – the sin of the world (Jn 1.29).
4 This is the meaning of the Greek word for sin ‘hamartia’.
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Laura Facci says:
Thank you Father Frank for “opening up the Scriptures “ for us and in so doing enabling us to experience a much richer understanding of the Mass and in particular the Eucharist and The Breaking of the Bread.