Bread of Life

Being hungry is as natural as breathing. We eat together with our family and our friends, we share meals together at Church because eating and drinking are essentially social activities. Eating and drinking together cement our friendships, and strengthen our sense of community. Taking time to eat together and to be with each other is a sign of the value that we place on each other. Food and drink loom largely in human life.

I’d like to write about Jesus calling himself bread. The bread of life. Bread that comes down from heaven. Bread that leads to eternal life.

Central to my understanding of Jesus being bread, is Holy Communion — the experience of the “real presence of Christ in communion. In some sense we encounter Christ in the bread of communion.

What does this real presence of Christ do for us? There are many things. Here are a few.

• First, it connects us with Christ and is a “participation” in His life. It actually draws us up into His divine life and allows that life to flow through us, just like plugging an electric cord into a socket.
• Second, it is medicine for our souls, which we take to spiritually strengthen us with the presence of Jesus.
• Third, it strengthens us for service. This spiritual food strengthens us to work and live for God.
• Fourth, it connects us with fellow believers across the world — united not only to Christ, but to each other as well.
• Fifth, not only does this meal unite us to each other and to Christ now, but it unites us across time with the communion of saints, the great cloud of witnesses that surrounds us.
• Sixth, it remembers the act of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.
• Seventh, it proclaims the hope we have in the resurrection. It is a triumphal declaration of the victory of Jesus over all the powers and principalities that stand against God’s Love.

Communion can nourish us for an outpouring of love in the world. Jesus gathered people to break bread together, and then he sent them out to feed and clothe and comfort others: he said, “Just as you did it to the least of these...you did it to me.”

Henri Nouwen once wrote in a prayer: “Dear Lord... Isn’t my faith in your presence in the breaking of the bread meant to reach out beyond the small circle of my brothers to the larger circle of humanity and to alleviate suffering as much as possible? If I can recognize you in communion, I must also be able to recognize you in the many hungry men, women and children in the world. If I cannot translate my faith in your presence into action for the world, I am still an unbeliever. I pray, therefore, Lord, deepen my faith in your presence and help me find ways to let this faith bear fruit in the lives of many.”

The Rev. Dr. Clark Sherman is Rector Emeritus at St. James Episcopal Church in Bozeman.