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When Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to his disciples, he summarized in these gestures his own life. Jesus is chosen from all eternity, blessed at his baptism in the Jordan River, broken on the cross, and given as bread to the world. Being chosen, blessed, broken, and given is the sacred journey of the Son of God, Jesus the Christ.
When we take bread, break it, and give it with the words “This is the Body of Christ,” we express our commitment to make our lives conform to the life of Christ. We too want to live as people chosen, blessed, and broken, and thus become food for the world.
—Nenri J. M. Nouwen, Bread for the Journey
Today, Christmas 2005, I lifted the bread for the gathered People of God. I broke it, saying, “The Body of Christ broken for you.” To which they replied, “Amen.” Meaning, “Yes,” “We affirm, “We agree,” “Let it be.”
Now, on Christmas night, I ask the question, as I muse in the quietness alone: Can I be broken, and rightly, becoming food for others? Being rightly broken is not simply being broken by rebellion against God or crushed by unfortunate circumstances. Being broken is having my life, daily, to be accessible and available for the nourishment of the deepest needs of those around me.
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Can we be broken, rightly? What does that mean for us, as we enter this Christmas Season and wait the movement into the New Year? What could be more important than our being broken as bread for others? And, in the brokenness, we find that, ironically, we are made whole in the Love giving life through us for others? In giving love, like Jesus Christ we find life. We are fed by feeding, we are loved by loving, we receive by giving—such is the mystery of the Eucharistic Mystery arising from the very Nature of the Reality.
This giving of brokenness is the way of Life, your life, my life, or we shall shut ourselves off from Life. This is the paradox that seems foolishness—the mystery manifested in the reality that when I am eaten by others I am given food. And, in doing this, I participate in the cosmic Eucharist!
OneLife Ministries is a pastoral outreach and nurture ministry of the First United Methodist Church, Fort Meade, FL. For Spiritual Direction, Pastoral Counseling, spiritual formation workshops, Christian meditation retreats, or more information about OneLife, write Rev. Dr. Brian K. Wilcox at briankwilcox@comcast.net.
Brian's book of mystical love poetry, An Ache for Union, can be ordered through major bookdealers.
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