Bread

Passages: Is. 41:4-14; Heb. 7:11-25; Lk. 19:12-28
Ընթերցուածքներ՝ Եսայ. ՆԱ 4-14; Եբր. Է 11-25; Ղկ. ԺԹ 12-28

In the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen!

On Sunday mornings, when I get up as I prepare for divine liturgy, as a priest I do more than just get dressed. As a priest I begin with my prayers, I begin with reflection, and most importantly I begin by preparing the bread which will be used as the Eucharist in the divine Liturgy. It is the tradition of the Armenian Church, that the bread that is used, that becomes the body and blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, be prepared fresh and warm prior to Divine Liturgy. Of course, as I prepare this dough, mixing flour and water, my son likes to come up and say I want church bread. I wonder what makes this bread Church Bread? Is it the fact that I am making it as a priest? Or is there something more? As part of the preparation of the bread, a priest recites the Lord’s Prayer, Psalm 50, and many other prayers of healing, making petitions known to our Lord so that this bread will be a blessing, and healing to those who consume it. Therefore, what prepares the bread to become church bread, is God’s presence.

Bread for us, as ancient people, as Armenians in the same way for all ancient peoples, is more than just flour and dough. When our Lord teaches us to pray “give us this day our daily Bread,” we are asking God to bless us. To provide for us all that we need to live our life, be it wisdom, food, clothing, shelter, etc. Therefore, the daily bread is more than just material dough. Bread is a symbol of deeper sustenance and nourishment. Interestingly, the first mention of bread in the Bible, which in Hebrew is “lechem” comes to us not from God’s blessing, but rather in the Garden of Eden, it appears only after Adam sins. In Genesis 3:19 we read “by the sweat of your brow, you will eat your bread, until you return to the ground.” This doesn’t mean bread didn’t exist before but Scripture first uses the word bread specifically as a reminder that because we rejected God, who gives freely all that need, now we must work for everything even the simplest thing that which nourishes us and feeds us.

My dears, why is this important to know? Because by the first Adam, when sin entered our lives, we learned that because we have rejected God in our life, the consequence is that we will face difficulties in life, even for a small piece of bread; we will toil for what is our nourishment – physical, spiritual or otherwise. Yet, through the love of God, we also see that the last Adam, Jesus Christ reversed this separation. Jesus first, was born in the House of Bread, Bethlehem. This shows that though we rejected God, and we must work for our bread, God never abandon’s us, and is born into our life. In the Old Testament, we read how God first provided the Manna from Heaven to His people in the desert who were starving. Ultimately, in the city of “the House of Bread” not only was God the Son born, but God the Son Jesus Christ became the Bread of Life, the Holy Eucharist. Christ gave up His body on the Cross so that through Him, we would receive forgiveness of that sin, of that suffering.

This my dears, is such a beautiful revelation of God’s love. It isn’t some deep theological discourse. It teaches us rather, that no amount of sin, no suffering, no consequence, no pain, no addiction, no violence, no persecution, no lie, no hatred or rejection is greater than the power of God. That even if we turn away from Him, even though we will face hardship, He will never abandon us and is ready to feed us when we come back to Him. God our Heavenly Father, does not reject us for our sinfulness, but rejects the sin, and provides all that we may need so that we are fed, and nourished, renewed and loved.

Yet, in the same way, as a priest I prepare the bread for my community with prayer, asking for God’s presence likewise, my dear brothers and sisters, we need to prepare ourselves, our lives, our daily heart and mind. Seek Him and participate in the work of God, even if at times by our sweat, not merely for food but as a response that we recognize that God uses us to the mix “flour and water”, to be a blessing in the world for each other. We are on the last Sunday of this year, we are preparing tables for food, and celebration, we are buying presents and sending out cards. We are preparing our tax papers to start the next year. We are getting resolutions set and hoping to leave all the negativity of 2025 in the past, and yet how many of us are preparing our souls? Our heart, and mind? How many of us are preparing for the nourishment that God provides for us and through us?

We may think that Adam rejected God and yet, that’s not us, we are Christian, we believe, we are in Church already. Yet, being ill-prepared is the reason, in the Gospel today, the master rebukes the servant who is wasteful with the mina that has been given to him. He is unprepared and wasteful. He thinks that since he already is trusted with the mina, that there isn’t more to be done. He neither used what was trusted to him, no did he use it to help others in need. Adam is all humanity; we are entrusted by God and blessed. We are called to respond with that which has been given to us. Christ is the bread for all humanity, and it is through Him we are all called and learn to prepare.

Yes, our Lord was born in Bethlehem, the House of Bread. And our Lord teaches us to pray for our daily bread. But Christ reminds us also, we live by more than just physical bread (Matthew 4:4, John 6). That yes, we will struggle, we will face temptation, and we may fail along the way. But what gives us strength, what makes the bread – Church bread, is not our title or position, not our education or strength, not our language, history, or our past. It is the love of God, His Grace, that renews us, gives us our daily bread, wipes away our sin and forms us into the blessing we are called to be for one another. Therefore, prepare my dears, through daily prayer, to eat of the Church bread, drink of His cup, and be renewed everyday by the love of God our Heavenly Father, the grace of God the Son Jesus Christ and through the illumination of God the Holy Spirit, Amen.