In early December, the Diocese of Central Newfoundland completed a course on the Holy Eucharist. That course was a journey through the roots of early human understanding of the Divine Presence amid hunting and gathering, growing crops, and advancing through time as cultures developed. We examined how ancient Hebrew people established sacred connections, and how these were passed down through generations, influenced by times of plenty, scarcity, wars, political upheavals, captivity, and loss. An underlying question we explored was: “What things were important enough to survive, for these were the elements that shaped our earliest understanding as Christians around the person of Jesus and God’s plan for history through him?”
As you read this, you might well imagine that the course around the Eucharist had many levels. It did. Now, rather than provide a précis of the course, I am going to choose here briefly to offer one theme that provided us with a foundation for some deeper understandings and an appreciation of who we might be as a Church today:
Unity.
Unity was essential in the early Christian Church for demonstrating Christ’s message to the world. During times of persecution, unity was seen as vital and non-negotiable, as Christians shared their lives and faced death together. Early Christians relied on one another, even across class divisions, wealth, and diverse cultural and religious backgrounds. They held a sincere belief in the Gospel message, which was first spread through oral tradition (word), and they found that gathering for the Eucharist brought Christ’s real presence into their midst.
Early Christians understood this, and they succeeded in creating a powerful testimony of one heart and soul in the Gospel. This was clear in their shared practices: radical generosity and common devotion to Jesus’ teachings, despite their different backgrounds. This unity wasn’t a forced conformity but a deep, Spirit-led bond rooted in shared purpose and love, which was crucial for fulfilling their mission.
The breaking and sharing of bread at the early Eucharist connected people to each other, to the Lord, to the community, and to God’s will for a mission of reconciliation with all people and all creation.
Let me leave you with these few features of the early Church for your reflection. May they bless you in your personal journey and in the vocation to which you are called within your local parish community.
Key Aspects of Early Church Unity:
1. There is no party spirit. All supposed “human strengths” or gifts, such as knowledge, spiritual power, and heavenly wisdom, are humbled before grace and love.
2. Christians identify with the suffering Lord and will suffer and sacrifice personally and for the sake of others out of love for him.
3. There is hope in the face of adversity and death because Christians believe that God has prepared a way and conquered death.
4. Christians will strive for unity in the Body of Christ. Ecclesia (or gathering with a common mind) is the highest value.
5. Christians love. The love of God is reflected in the ways they love others.
Let me leave you now with John 17:21, in which Jesus prays for future believers, asking that they “may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”
May Jesus’ prayer be fulfilled in us, this year and beyond.
