The 4 Marks of the Church: 3) The Breaking of the Bread

“And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” (Acts 2:42)

Right teaching – healthy relationships with each other – none of these are possible without a relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Where does that relationship start? Whenever we come together and repeat the meal He shared with his disciples the night before he died for us, and which he commanded to always do “in remembrance of me.”

The Greek word translated here as “remembrance” is anamnesis. But it actually means something closer to “recalling,” as when a person is recalled from one location to another. This is not a purely mental “memory.” It is a point in our time when the offering that Jesus made for all people, for all time, becomes present to us now by its effects. In this action, we are “recalling his death, resurrection and ascension,” so that Jesus himself is present with us in his self-offering, and the risen life with which he feeds us.

And the greatest effect of this great recalling is the community of fellowship created by Jesus. In the Breaking of Bread, we become “living members” of each other in the Eucharistic Body of Christ. To a world broken by mistrust and evil, where people live in lonely isolation, we say, “It doesn’t have to be this way. Reconciliation is possible with Jesus Christ. Join us.”

Those who have participated with me in our liturgy have heard me utter this prayer from the Prayer Book: “Be present, be present, O Jesus, our great High Priest, as you were present with your disciples, and be known to us in the breaking of bread; who live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and for ever. Amen.” I commend this prayer to you all as a way of preparing yourselves for Jesus to join us at every celebration of the Holy Eucharist.