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The Wedding at Cana

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The priest, standing at the altar, takes the paten with the bread and, holding it slightly raised above the altar, says,

We may respond, "Blessed be God for ever."

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The first Christians used ordinary bread at Mass, but it was of the best available, marked with a cross or some other symbol of Christ. From about the ninth century, azyme bread began to be used, recalling the unleavened bread Jesus used at the Last Supper.[1]

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The more we think about it, the clearer it becomes: God could not have chosen anything simpler to symbolize our personal surrender to him. Bread is the most eloquent symbol of human existence. To earn your bread means to make a living. Are we mistaken in discovering in this sacramental medium our Lord's intention of linking the Holy Eucharist to the most humble of our life's activities?

The little piece of bread on the paten represents, poetically, the union of man's work with the earth, a natural element. Because "there is no scrap of bread which does not call to mind the hard work of ploughing and sowing, the moist brow of the reaper, the weariness of the arms which have threshed the corn, and the grunts of the baker who kneaded the dough close to the scorching oven."[2]

Therefore, when we offer bread as a participation in Christ's sacrifice, we intend to offer also all the beauty and goodness of nature united to our own work.

At this moment, we recall the Gospel episode of the multiplication of the loaves and the fish. Here in the Mass, Christ is going to feed, with the food of immortality, all who are willing to accept him. But, as in the Gospel scene, he wants us to put in whatever we have got. The boy in the Gospel parted with the few loaves and fish that he had, even though he could not believe his meager contribution would solve anything. The Apostles themselves remarked, "What is that among so many?" (Jn 6:9).

After he has offered the bread, the celebrant, stands on one side of the altar, pours wine into the chalice, and adds to it a little water, saying,

By the mystery of this water and wine

may we come to share in the divinity of Christ,

who humbled himself to share in our humanity.

We ratify this supplication with a movement of our heart.

The priest goes again to the center of the altar, takes the chalice, and, holding it slightly raised above the altar, says,

Blessed are you, Lord, God of all creation.

Through your goodness we have this wine to offer,

fruit of the vine and work of human hands.

It will become our spiritual drink.

Then he places the chalice on the corporal. Bowing in an attitude of profound humility, offering not only these gifts but also our self‑oblation, he says,

Lord God, we ask you to receive us

and be pleased with the sacrifice we offer you

with humble and contrite hearts.

This prayer is taken from the song of the three companions of Daniel who were thrown into the furnace (Dan 3:39‑40). The priest speaks in his own name and in those of the faithful, and asks God to accept the sacrifice about to be offered. God should find in us true humility and sincere repentance for our sins.

At this moment, the gifts of bread and wine and the altar itself may be incensed --a symbol of the Church's offerings and prayers going up to God. Afterwards, the ministers and the people may be incensed too.[3]

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It was an ancient custom to take the wine mixed with water, which the chalice of Jesus in the Last Supper contained. The Church retained this gesture to symbolize the sanctification of the Christian, which is accomplished through his union with Jesus Christ. The water becomes the symbol of ourselves: our lives, with our weaknesses.

Have you stopped to think what happens to the drops of water mixed with the wine? They are absorbed by it and then become inseparable from it. So does Jesus absorb us. The drops of water are of negligible worth; they are not even enough to quench anyone's thirst. Yet, they will end up being divine blood! And all that because they let themselves be mixed with the wine and be dissolved in it, thus manifesting self‑denial, personal renunciation.

At this moment, we grow in our desire to offer ourselves in total self-surrender, as the few drops of water in the chalice have reminded us. So we will be able to become one with Jesus Christ after the Consecration.

1. We call hosts the pieces of unleavened bread for Communion. Originally, "host" (from Latin hostire, to strike) referred to any animal about to be sacrificed. Hence, among some orientals, it is called "the lamb," and also "the seal," for it carried a sign or mark. On the other hand, the consecrated host is called "the First Born" and "the Blazing Coal," among them.

2. Georges Chevrot, Our Mass (Collegeville-Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1958), p. 98.

3. GIRM, no. 51.

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