Patrick Comerford
We are still in the season of Christmas, which is a 40-day season and it did not end on Monday, on the Feast of the Epiphany (6 January), but continues until Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation (2 February).
Later today, I hope to take part in a meeting of local clergy in the Milton Keynes area in Holy Trinity Church, Old Wolverton. In the evening, the choir at Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church in Stony Stratford resumes rehearsals after the Christmas and New Year recess. But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:
1, today’s Gospel reading;
2, a short reflection;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
Mark 6: 34-44 (NRSVA):
34 As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. 35 When it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, ‘This is a deserted place, and the hour is now very late; 36 send them away so that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy something for themselves to eat.’ 37 But he answered them, ‘You give them something to eat.’ They said to him, ‘Are we to go and buy two hundred denarii[a] worth of bread, and give it to them to eat?’ 38 And he said to them, ‘How many loaves have you? Go and see.’ When they had found out, they said, ‘Five, and two fish.’ 39 Then he ordered them to get all the people to sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties. 41 Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and he divided the two fish among them all. 42 And all ate and were filled; 43 and they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. 44 Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men.
Today’s Reflection:
In Saint Mark’s account of the feeding of the 5,000 (6: 34-44), which is the Gospel reading at the Eucharist today, we read: ‘Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed [he said the blessing] and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and he divided the two fish among them all’ (Mark 6: 41-44, NRSVA).
Some years back, as I was preparing one Saturday to preside at the Parish Eucharist the next day, I found myself reflecting on the words we use in the Blessing of the Bread and Wine in the Eucharist in the light of a posting early that week on a Facebook group, ‘Episcopalians on Facebook’ by Dudley C McLean II.
He asked whether you have ever wondered what were the words of ‘the blessing’ said by Christ?
His curiosity is also stirred up when he reads the words of the institution of the Eucharist:
‘While they were eating, he took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them’ and ‘Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, and all of them drank from it’ (Mark 14: 22-23, NRSVA).
Saint Luke provides a more comprehensive report on the institution of the Eucharist. His account involves two cups of wine and the loaf of bread.
The first cup begins the opening ceremony of the Passover meal (see Luke 22: 17). Here Jesus would have prayed:
‘Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, Creator of the fruit of the vine.’
The first prayer is called Kiddush (Hebrew: קידוש) – literally ‘sanctification’ – a blessing said over wine to sanctify the Shabbat, Passover and other Jewish holidays.
The word refers too to a small repast on Shabbat or festival mornings after the prayer services and before the meal.
The Torah refers to two requirements concerning Shabbat and in particular the Passover: to keep it and to remember it. The celebration of the Feast of Passover each year commemorates the liberation of the people from slavery:
‘When the Lord brings you into the land … you shall keep this observance in this month. It shall serve for you as a sign on your hand and as a reminder on your forehead, so that the teaching of the Lord may be on your lips; for with a strong hand the Lord brought you out of Egypt. You shall keep this ordinance at its proper time from year to year’ (see Exodus 13: 5, 9-10).
The function of the first cup is to set apart, sanctify or make holy the celebration.
Then follows the Hamotzi or blessing over bread: ‘Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.’
The bread is then broken and shared among those who are present.
The second cup follows after the second Kiddush or blessing over the wine: ‘Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the universe, creator of the fruit of the vine.’
In the Liturgy of the Church, the Eucharistic prayer is the pinnacle of the celebration, a memorial proclamation of praise and thanksgiving for God’s work of salvation, making it present for us at this moment. It is a proclamation in which the Body and Blood of Christ are made present by the power of the Holy Spirit and the people are joined to Christ in offering his sacrifice to the Father.
At the Preface, the priest extends his or her hands and says: ‘Lift up your hearts.’ This functions in the same way as the first cup or Kiddush at the Passover rite. Its purpose or significance includes the intention of gathering, and the priest concludes the Preface with the people singing or saying aloud, ‘Holy, holy, holy Lord ...’
The Eucharistic Prayer continues by recall God’s action in human history:
Blessed are you, Father,
the creator and sustainer of all things;
you made us in your own image,
male and female you created us;
even when we turned away from you,
you never ceased to care for us,
but in your love and mercy you freed us from the slavery of sin,
giving your only begotten Son to become man
and suffer death on the cross to redeem us;
he made there the one complete and all-sufficient sacrifice
for the sins of the whole world:
he instituted,
and in his holy Gospel commanded us to continue,
a perpetual memory of his precious death
until he comes again:
(Holy Communion 2, Eucharistic Prayer 1, Book of Common Prayer, the Church of Ireland).
Then follows the Hamotzi:
On the night that he was betrayed he took bread;
and when he had given thanks to you, he broke it,
and gave it to his disciples, saying …
What is missing are the actual words of the Hamotzi, ‘Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.’ Instead, we only see the priest raising the bread.
In the Kiddush of the second cup, we see similar actions and hear similar words:
In the same way, after supper he took the cup;
and when he had given thanks to you,
he gave it to them, saying …
Here again, the words of the Kiddush are missing, ‘Blessed are You, O Lord our God, King of the universe, creator of the fruit of the vine.’
At the time the Gospels were written, Jewish-born members of the Church would have known what was meant when they saw and heard ‘when he had given thanks to you,’ and understood these words as referring to prayers used at the Passover.
These words are implicit, and it was not necessary to spell them out.
The Gospel writes uses a literary deice known as incipit.
The term refers to the use of the opening line of a poem or song or haftarah, as an abbreviated way of referring to the entire song or haftarah.
For example, Christ’s words on the cross, Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ (see Mark 15: 34, Matthew 27: 46), refer not just to the first verse of Psalm 22, but by pronouncing the incipit Christ invokes the entire psalm.
Dudley C McLean II pointed out in his posting five years ago that through 2,000 years of the Eucharist, the Church continues to omit the implicit and implied words used by Christ in his words of blessings over the Bread and the Cup before giving new meaning to them as his body and blood.’
Imagine, he suggested, if instead in the Eucharistic Liturgy we heard the priest say:
On the night that he was betrayed he took bread;
and when he had given thanks to you, he broke it,
and gave it to his disciples, saying …
On the night he was betrayed he took bread,
(the priest raises the bread and says)
Blessed are you, O Lord our God,
King of the Universe,
who brings forth bread from the earth.’
He broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying:
‘Take, eat,
this is my body which is given for you
Do this in remembrance of me.’
In the same way, after supper he took the cup;
(the priest then raises the cup and says)
‘Blessed are you, O Lord our God,
King of the Universe,
creator of the fruit of the vine.’
and when he had given thanks to you,
he gave it to them, saying …
Drink this, all of you,
for this is my blood of the new covenant
which is shed for you and for many
for the forgiveness of sins.
Do this, as often as you drink it,
in remembrance of me.
Of course, he points out, although the words of the prayers of blessings, the Hamotzi and Kiddush, are missing, this does not invalidate the Eucharist. But their inclusion would have enriched the liturgy and strengthened the connections to ‘the night that he was betrayed.’
Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 8 January 2025):
The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘The Melanesian Brotherhood Centenary’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update by Ella Sibley, Regional Manager for Europe and Oceania, USPG.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 8 January 2025) invites us to pray:
Lord, bless the evangelistic efforts of the Melanesian Brotherhood in the region, as they share your gospel through songs and dramatised Bible stories. May hearts be touched and lives transformed.
The Collect:
O God,
who by the leading of a star
manifested your only Son to the peoples of the earth:
mercifully grant that we,
who know you now by faith,
may at last behold your glory face to face;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Lord God,
the bright splendour whom the nations seek:
may we who with the wise men have been drawn by your light
discern the glory of your presence in your Son,
the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
Creator of the heavens,
who led the Magi by a star
to worship the Christ-child:
guide and sustain us,
that we may find our journey’s end
in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yesterday’s Reflection
Continued Tomorrow
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
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