“He took the bread...he blessed it… he broke it… and he gave it”

He took ….

In the supermarket, we go from one floor to the other and take whatever we want depending on our likes and our budget.  It is not even one percent of what is there that we pick. We leave more than what we take. What we have chosen and taken is wanted and dear to us.

You are chosen and taken by someone. He has taken candidates from the cities and villages, from the lanes and by lanes, from all the tribes and languages, from all classes and social milieus. Someone has seen you and picked you because he likes you. The choice was entirely his. “He called those whom he wanted” ( Mk 3.13) . You are chosen, called, and set apart from the rest.

 My call came to me on a hot summer afternoon when I was in Class Seven. “There is someone here to meet those who want to become Priests”, the teacher announced. More than half of the class put their hands up and came out of the classroom, more to escape the humidity and stuffiness of the crowded classroom on a hot afternoon than the thought of becoming Priests. “ Before Philip called you I saw you”    I often think of this verse from the Gospel of John. Long before Fr Philip Thayil called me out from my classroom, I was seen, chosen, and taken note of by someone else. 

He blessed….

I am taken, chosen, and called for a blessing. I still remember the blessing that my father gave me when I left home for the first time, and I also I remember the last blessing he gave me before he departed from this world. These are memories we cherish.

I have been chosen for a blessing. From this blessing comes power, strength, and energy. I am made energetic, new, and alive with his blessing.  I am empowered and made different because he has blessed me. He has set his seal on me. I am his.

One loaf of bread is enough for five thousand if it has a blessing on it. One seed is enough for a hundredfold if it is blessed. A touch on the hem of his garment is enough for a cure. With his blessing    Peter will become a Rock against which nothing can prevail, and Saul the persecutor, will turn into a Paul, the evangelizer.

A marriage becomes a sacrament with a blessing. One is admitted to the Church through a blessing. Forgiveness of sins is granted through a blessing. Bread turns into his body and wine into his blood through a blessing. Blessing is power. It transforms. It changes. Blessings makes one  new.

 “He called them to be with him.”  We are called for a blessing.  To be with him is the greatest blessing. Our vocation is to be with him. Holiness is being with him.

 He broke …

We are taken and blessed so that we can be broken. A loaf remains a single loaf until it is broken. A seed remains a single seed until it dies. A lamp is not a lamp until it burns. Salt is useless until it goes into the boiling water and loses its colour and form. The vine has to be pruned so that it can yield more.

Suffering, pain, and death are not  misfortunes for those who have been blessed. They are the pathway to greater life, to the fullness of life. There are no saints in heaven who have not been broken. “ Whoever loses his life will find it”

It is the power of his blessing that makes us endure the pain and death. The knife that prunes is held by the hands of a loving father. The bread is broken by none other than one who has blessed it. He is holding you while breaking you. He will not break or prune more than you can endure. 

He gave …

We are chosen, blessed and broken to be given. Bread is broken to be shared. Vine is pruned so that it can produce more. Salt looses its color and taste and is thrown into the boiling water so that it can give taste. A light is lit and dies, so that many can find their way. Cross has no meaning without resurrection and a Pentecost.

“ He called those whom he wanted to be with him and to be sent out”. We are blessed so that we are enabled to give. We are consecrated so that we can be send out.  We are broken so that we can be shared. We die so that we can bring new life.

Jesus was chosen and consecrated by the Father, broken on the cross, so that we might have life. What he did with the five loaves and fish is the summary of his life. He did it again at the last supper.  With the two disciples of Emmaus, he did it again.  Every time the Eucharist is celebrated, every time one is called to follow him he repeats the same action, he takes the bread, he blesses it, he breaks it, and gives it .  It is the summary of his life. He wants your life too to be taken, blessed, broken and given.

 -Fr T.V. George sdb