One Bread, One Body

One bread, one body, one Lord of all,

one cup of blessing which we bless.

And we, though many throughout the earth,

we are one body in this one Lord.

-"One Bread, One Body" (John B. Foley)

Christians are good at finding things about which we disagree.  This has been the case since before the Church’s birth, and continues to be true at every level: universal, denominational, and congregational.  We debate doctrine, quarrel over worship style, and argue about what color the sanctuary carpet should be.  Frankly, it seems at times that there isn’t much about which we concur.

Even concerning things about which we generally agree, like the necessity of Eucharistic observance, we find some degree of discord as it pertains to the details.  While all Christians partake of this meal in some form, we have vastly differing opinions about it.  How often should it be celebrated; is it something we ought to do weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually?  When it’s celebrated, who can participate; is it only for the baptized, or only for members of a given denomination or congregation?  Should we use wine or grape juice; are we better off with wafers or Hawaiian bread?  We’re not even of the same mind regarding what it is.  Is it a sacrament, an ordinance, or something else entirely?

The problem is that the Bible, to which most Christians look as the sufficient rule of faith and practice, is relatively silent when it comes to such questions.  That is: no concrete answers are offered.  We aren’t told how often to partake of the Lord’s Supper: only that, whenever we do so, we should remember him.  Nor are we told specifically who’s allowed to receive. 

Indeed, even in the information we’re given by the synoptic gospels and St. Paul (the only places wherein we find explicit references to the institution of Communion), we don’t find one hundred percent consistency; there’s divergence both in what Jesus said, and in what he instructed.  The gospels all seem to agree that Jesus used unleavened bread; the apostle isn’t so precise.  Matthew’s is the only account wherein those present are explicitly commanded to eat the bread and drink from the cup (though an argument can be made for Paul’s writings).  St. Matthew’s also the only evangelist to clearly depict the disciples as eating the bread; moreover, only he and St. Mark have them drinking from the cup.  These are but a few of the many variations.

Still, there is something that’s present in each of the gospel portrayals of this event, as well as in Paul: a single loaf, and a single cup.  Might there have been more?  Sure.  But according to each source, it’s with one loaf and one cup that Jesus institutes this supper.  And these, according to each source, he proclaims to be his body and (the new covenant in) his blood.

And why does this matter?  As it’s been pointed out, there’s much about which the gospel accounts and Paul disagree.  But they all say that there’s one bread and one cup, re-presenting one body and blood—making all who partake part of that body, and therefore one in Christ Jesus.  Similarly, while there’s much about which we disagree, we ought to find oneness at least in that which was (and is) freely offered for and to all of us in order that we might have life abundantly and eternally.  We’ll most probably never align on every issue.  But we don't have to.  We can still be one in the Spirit, and in the Lord: recognizing our common need for grace and forgiveness, and striving to be of the same mind to love one another despite our differences.