What Is The Meaning of ‘Bread Broken For You’?
Before it is bread broken, it is bread created
I had never thought of myself as bread until I heard the words of Jesus who said as he held up a loaf of bread, “This (bread) is my body broken for you”.
Bread is a perfect metaphor for our bodies.
To start with it begins as separate ingredients – not unlike us. We began as separate ingredients of an egg and sperm, brought together in an act of union between two people.
And then the mixing begins with other ingredients. Flour, salt, sugar — A sister, a community, an education, learning to play, failing, getting up again, a little music, some time in nature.
Then add a sprinkle of silence and a spoonful of prayer.
Then the kneading begins
After a little gentle mixing of these ingredients, a bit of whipping into shape begins.
Not the whipping of corporal punishment, but the whipping of intention that blends all the ingredients of my life into one homogeneous whole that is set out to rest, to pause, and then get punched down to rise again – more fragrant and better each time.
My life has included, besides a college education, home ownership followed by bankruptcy; marriage followed by divorce, parenting followed by an empty nest; a professional career followed by illness and retirement; loneliness followed by a new partner; poverty followed by investments, the grief of saying goodbye to a faithful old dog and the joy of welcoming a puppy dog followed by two kittens.
Do you see a pattern here?
With each loss, I felt beaten down and as useless as raw bread dough.
But deep within the core of this lump is a Mystery feeding on the sweet ingredients of life – beauty, love, gratitude – creating lots of tiny joy-bubbles of elasticity and strength, and the older I get the more flavorful my life becomes.
Getting the lumps out
Sometimes when we cook we look for the right consistency in the batter or in a pudding. How do we get it to thicken just right, with no lumps and no soggy areas when baked?
A lot has to do with how the batter is stirred. A quick once around with a fork is going to leave the batter lumpy and it will cook unevenly.
I was thinking about this stirring process that gets out the lumps and wondered if that isn’t why the Universe keeps things in motion.
I try not to focus on climate change, global conflicts or domestic violence but these realities keep us all stirred up as we try to survive.
The stirrings keep us awake at night and complicate lives at every level.
What could possibly emerge from the gooey batter of so much going wrong?
This is when I try to remember that there are other, gentler stirrings that are going on also.
The stirrings of new life in the womb, the quiver of hummingbird wings hovering over a blossom in spring, and the tender waves of heart-delight that come with the touch of kitten fur or reading poetry. Is not gratitude and love as powerful a force as pain and sorrow?
Enduring the heat
Enough with stirring metaphors, let’s get this reflection in the oven already!
When it comes to baking bread I want to consider the oven’s temperature. It’s hot in there!
The same heat that will put blisters on my fingers is the heat that will create magic with a pan full of dough.
A few years back I sat with a woman who was in a terrible relationship and she could see no way out.
The heat she endured in a bitter struggle for survival could not be compared to a blistered finger and it is fair to say she will always bear the scars of her experience.
Today, that same woman holds a degree in social work from a fine university and spends her time and energies helping other women who are in the same fire she was once in.
Her gift to the universe is like a loaf of bread broken for many.
The breaking of bread
Carrying the metaphor just one more step, now that we hold a hot delicious loaf of bread what do we do with it? Our goal from the beginning has been to savor the essence of the broken loaf.
I love to tear off a hunk of steaming bread and slather it with butter that melts and runs down the sides.
You may prefer to carve neat slices and use them to surround ham, cheese and perhaps a slice of tomato.
The truth is, good homemade bread is really perfect all by itself. I wish I could remember this when I go to add something more to my life in an attempt to make it ‘better.’
We are like homemade bread…every loaf made of slightly different recipes, no two loaves shaped the same way, some baked swiftly, others over time in a slow oven.
When ready to serve we never know what additions people will want to add, if any.
Whenever you find yourself struggling with a life that seems like a sticky mess, remember that simple ingredients are all that is really necessary.
And when you are feeling pummeled by anything in life, keep a vision of what the end product is going to be. Allow your heat of passion for those you seek to serve to be hot enough to change your sticky insides to delectable bread, and then remember it still needs to be torn or sliced to be appreciated.
In the end we are all called to be bread broken for one another.
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