Yesterday, I baked a loaf of bread which turned out remarkably delicious, a result of countless attempts at making bread. But I never really gave much thought to the whole process of how I’m able to do this. I order the flour that comes from Amazon or the Jewel. My bread baking state there and ends with my putting together ingredients, allow for rising, let the I en do it’s work and enjoy the end result.
I rarely give thought to how the whole process started: seeds, planted by farmers and their machines in the earth; nutrients must enter the picture with water and rich soil foundational; the seed breaks, a shoot rises forth that continues to need nutrients and sunshine; much growth that remains a beautiful, unseen mystery; harvesting leads to gathering which leads to storage which leads to grinding and eventual packaging; paper, machines, humans working the machines, the trucks and trains to move the “product” out; stores/Amazon welcome the product and place it on shelves or distribute it with their own self made trucks. I buy the product and do magic. Hopefully.
The more I become aware of the vast intricacy of the entire process of bread baking, from seed to loaf, I become aware of the huge numbers of people involved. And how their entire livelihoods are dependent upon all of US in the process. We are so interconnected.
Jesus says that He is the BREAD that we must eat. How does He become this BREAD? What are all the elements of this particular process and how does it begin? Jesus CAN’T become this BREAD without the actual seed that was planted that became what I try to bake. Only thinking about the Consecration by the priest and our reception of Holy Communion deprives the ritual and Sacrament of its power to change our lives.
When we lose our own connection to Mother Earth, which embraces the seed, we lose our connection to each other and Christ, or the connection is extremely diluted. We are intimately connected to the earth, the planets, the stars, galaxies, energy. Organic!!! Prayer begins the process of greater awareness, which leads to new life.
Peace,
Fr. Frank