This became the focus of life in the early Church. Speaking of the 3000 men and women baptised at Pentecost, the Acts of the Apostles tells us: “These remained faithful to the teaching of the apostles, to the brotherhood, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers.”

After Jesus ascended into heaven, the apostles fulfilled their mission by leading the other Christians in prayer, obeying the Lord’s command at the Last Supper: “Do this in memory of me.”

According to Christ himself, there is no better way of remembering him than the “breaking of the bread”. As St John tells us in his account of the Gospel, Jesus said to his disciples: “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him.”

Today, Christians of different denominations have different ways of imitating what the early Church did 2000 years ago. In the end, all find themselves going back to Scripture to recall the words of St Paul to the Corinthians. He begins by saying: “For this is what I received from the Lord, and in turn passed on to you...”

St Paul was speaking of the way Jesus instituted the Eucharist at the Last Supper. The Apostle concludes: “Until the Lord comes, therefore, every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are proclaiming his death.”

By recalling Christ’s death, we immerse ourselves in the logic of the cross. Jesus died so that we might live: “Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I shall raise him up on the last day.”

The most eloquent preacher Africa has ever given to the Church was St Augustine, the fifth century Bishop of Hippo. When speaking of the breaking of the bread, he said: “The bread you see on the altar, sanctified by the word of God, is the body of Christ. The chalice, or rather, what the chalice contains, sanctified by the word of God, is the blood of Christ. In these signs, Christ the Lord willed to entrust to us his body and the blood which he shed for the forgiveness of our sins. If you have received them properly, you become what you have received.” Consequently, “not only have we become Christians, we have become Christ himself.”

This article by Fr. Joe Babendreier first appeared in the Sunday Nation on 3rd July 2011.