we care about the crumbs

In our family’s parish, we eat bread. (This is not a theological discourse on the real presence; this is a simple recipe.)

Each Sunday, instead of the thin white wafers traditional to Catholic communion, our priest breaks brown bread. It is held high in his hands for all of us to see and heaped high on silver plates for all of us to eat. It wasn’t what I was used to as a cradle Catholic. But I have come to love everything about this practice.

I love that the simple bread is baked each week by members of our parish. It tastes like loving service.

I love how our priests have to take time to break the wide flat circles into hundred of tiny squares. It tastes like holy transformation. 

I love that the Eucharistic ministers need the help of altar servers to hold the plates while they offer the Body of Christ. It tastes like living community. 

Most of all, I love what real bread requires of those of us who eat it.

You have to hold it carefully in your hands so you don’t drop whatever small square you’ve given.

You have to chew it carefully and consider what it means to consume the Body of Christ.

And you have to care for the crumbs.

. . .

Since Catholics believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist (ok, there is theological discourse here after all), we pay particular reverence to the bread-turned-body and the wine-turned-blood.

Watch the next time you’re at a Mass, and you’ll see this. The patient wiping of plates after communion. The careful consuming of every last drop from the chalices. And the watchful care for every last crumb.

Cut back to adolescence. I’d see communion ministers scurry to snatch up a dropped host or rush to daub a spill from the cup, and I’d roll my eyes. Honestly, what’s the point. Is Jesus really in that little speck of a broken wafer? Do we really have to go through all these theatrics? Can’t God take care of himself?

Now flash-forward to present. I’m in a pew with three little children. Three messy, noisy, squirmy children. Three small people often scorned by society as a pesky inconvenience (e.g., a distraction from their parents’ professional pursuits) or reviled as an utter burden (e.g., a constraint of freedom, a drain of finances, a strain on resources).

They are crumbs in the world’s eyes.

And I love that I am part of a church that cares for these crumbs. A church where children are seen and blessed. A church where children are called by name. A church where all parts of the Body of Christ are welcomed, regardless of appearance or ability.

. . .

Every Sunday at Mass I watch the Eucharistic ministers. Whenever their plate is empty and the last person in line has been fed, they look down carefully. They look all around them. They stop and stoop to pick up any crumb they see.

We do not act like this anywhere else. We do not care for the crumbs.

The dirty homeless man with the cardboard sign, the pudgy teenager with Down syndrome, the elderly woman hunched over her walker, the immigrant family speaking a strange language, the drooling adult in the wheelchair – we would rather rush by them all, avert our eyes, busy ourselves with our phones or our conversation, hurry on to anything more important.

We miss the crumbs. And He is there. 

Christ had time for crumbs. Children, women, poor, sick, lepers, outcasts, prostitutes, tax collectors, foreigners, strangers, thieves, criminals. People who were pushed to society’s margins, dumped to the dirty streets, shoved to the dark and desperate corners.

He had all the time in the world for them.

I want to be a part of a church that echoes this truth each time we break bread. That we don’t just celebrate what is whole and beautiful.

We care about the crumbs, too.

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8 Comments

  1. Anne @ Big Shoe Running on 7 March 2015 at 12:20 pm

    My husband and I recently visited a cathedral… the bishop’s church. I was in awe and so humbled by the meticulous care with which the Eucharist was handled. Dusting, wiping, checking once… twice… three times… So beautiful.

    Thank you so much for this reflection!

    • Laura on 15 March 2015 at 2:32 pm

      Ooo I love this image, Anne! Whenever I watch the priest do this “cleaning up” after communion, I always think about the priesthood as being “the servants of the servants of God.” So beautiful to think of the bishops doing this humble and holy service that we do every day in our homes, too. Thank you for sharing this story!

  2. Megan on 6 March 2015 at 9:41 pm

    Beautiful! I attended CSB and always loved that the Eucharist was different from my previous experience, it helped me really reflect on what I was receiving, and I remember the honor of bring a “plate holder” as you describe!… you have so beautifully and honestly helped me recognize and name the beauty of the Eucharist that reaches out to the periphery and remind me of a place and church I hold so dear! Thank you 🙂

    • Laura on 15 March 2015 at 2:34 pm

      Megan, I love your words here, and that the experience of being a “plate holder” was so meaningful to you! Our boys are always asking to do this, and I hope this service will one day be as important to them , too. (And yay for the CSB connection! Love those sisters!)

  3. David on 6 March 2015 at 11:15 am

    Makes so much more sense. The little wafers are silly and I don’t think that is what Christ had envisioned.

  4. Abbey @ Surviving Our Blessings on 6 March 2015 at 9:53 am

    This is simply beautiful. Thank you, Laura.

  5. Claire on 6 March 2015 at 9:32 am

    Beautiful reflection Laura! (And so was your reflection on Blessed is She earlier this week.)

  6. Nell @ Whole Parenting Family on 6 March 2015 at 7:53 am

    Stunning. You strike a beautiful chord with your beautiful writing!! Thank you for sharing. And amen on the world’s perception of three kids.

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