Bible Bread Crumbs

Following the trail to table fellowship

01/07/2020

Mark 6:34-44 When Jesus saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. By now it was already late and his disciples approached him and said, “This is a deserted place and it is already very late. Dismiss them so that they can go to the surrounding farms and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” He said to them in reply, “Give them some food yourselves.” But they said to him, “Are we to buy two hundred days’ wages worth of food and give it to them to eat?” He asked them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” And when they had found out they said, “Five loaves and two fish.” So he gave orders to have them sit down in groups on the green grass. The people took their places in rows by hundreds and by fifties. Then, taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; he also divided the two fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied. And they picked up twelve wicker baskets full of fragments and what was left of the fish. Those who ate of the loaves were five thousand men.

Last night we had our last class on the gospel of Mark and we ended on the Eucharist. I though the Eucharist was a fitting conclusion not only because it brings together all the loose strands of thought in the gospel of Mark, but also because the Eucharist captures the essence and end of the whole Bible. To be sure, there are many meaningful motifs and ancient analogies interspersed throughout the scriptures, but one is unmistakable and stands out above all the others, namely, food and feeding, eating and the Eucharist, in a word, table fellowship. As we say today: “You gotta eat!”

Doesn’t this table fellowship also punctuate our personal and public life? Parents enjoy preparing a meal so families can sit down to eat supper together. Young couples enjoy going out for romantic candle-lit meals. We all sit down for three meals a day. Or, like my friend, Fr. Erik Pohlmeier likes to day: “I never miss breakfast – it’s the most important meal of the morning!”

Similarly, from the first book of Genesis to the last book of Revelation, the Bible leaves us bread crumbs as clues of the Eucharist. The inspired authors hope we catch the connection between how essential eating is to our daily lives to how indispensable eating is to our spiritual lives. For example, in Genesis 14, Abraham meets the mysterious Melchizedek the high priest of God Most High, and what do they do? They offer a thanksgiving sacrifice of bread and wine, and they enjoy table fellowship. That meal with Melchizedek was a clear foreshadowing of the Eucharist, the future meal with the Messiah.

In the last book of Revelation 3:20, Jesus stands at the door of our hearts and knocks, waiting for us to open to him. And what does Jesus want to do if we let him enter? Jesus says: “I will enter his house and dine with him and he with me.” Did you catch the connection with Communion, literally “bread crumbs” the Bible leaves us to teach us about table fellowship? In other words, the Bible leaves us clues like bread crumbs from Genesis to Revelation so we will follow those crumbs to table fellowship at the Mass. At Mass the table of the Word should lead easily, effectively and enjoyably to the table of the Eucharist.

In the gospel today we read from Mark 6 and pick up another Bible bread crumb very suggestive of the Eucharist. Jesus multiples 5 loaves and 2 fish and Mark describes his actions using four key words: he took, he blessed, he broke and he gave. If you fast-forward to the Last Supper scene in Mark 14:22, you find the exact same four words: “While they were eating, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, and said, ‘Take it; this is my body’.” Did you pick up the bread crumb clue that St. Mark left us in Mark 6 to prepare us for Mark 14, and ultimately to lead us to the Eucharist, where Jesus will feed not five thousand men, but the hungry multitudes across the millennia – you and me – with the Bread that is his Body? The Eucharist is not the most important meal of the morning. It is the most important meal, period.

I ended the last class on the gospel of Mark with some quotations from the saints on the Eucharist. I wanted them to hear not only the testimony of scripture but also the voices of the saints speaking about this most important meal, our table fellowship with Christ. St. Augustine in the fourth century wrote: “Recognize in this bread what hung on the cross, and in this chalice what flowed from his side…whatever was in many and varied ways announced beforehand in the sacrifices of the Old Testament pertains to this one sacrifice which is revealed in the New Testament.” Few people are more eloquent about the Eucharist than St. Augustine!

St. Thomas Aquinas, one of my favorite saints, said things more succinctly; he said a lot with a little. He wrote in the 13th century: “The proper effect of the Eucharist is the transformation of man into God.” That brief sentence pretty much sums it all up: the Mass makes us like God. In our own day, St. Teresa of Calcutta said movingly: “Jesus has made himself the Bread of life to give us life. Night and day, he is there. If you really want to grow in love, come back to the Eucharist, come back to that Adoration.”

In other words, both the scriptures and the saints sing the praises of table fellowship that is the Eucharist we celebrate every Sunday, or maybe every day. Meditating on the Mass is not only a good way to end a study on the gospel of Mark; the Eucharist is a good way to end everything.

Praised be Jesus Christ!