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Notes
1 “Respondeo dicendum quod, sicut dictum est, sacramentum proprie dicitur quod ordinatur ad significandam nostram sanctificationem. In qua tria possunt considerari, videlicet ipsa causa sanctificationis nostrae, quae est passio Christi; et forma nostrae sanctificationis, quae consistit in gratia et virtutibus; et ultimus finis nostrae sanctificationis, qui est vita aeterna.” Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, III.60.3c.
2 I want to stress that bread is being considered specifically as a sacramental sign. This is distinct from (although intimately related to) a consideration of bread as a biblical image.
3 Joseph A. Grassi, Loaves and Fishes: The Gospel Feeding Narratives (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1991), 17.
4 For a survey of the ways the image of bread is used in Hebrew Scriptures, see Wolfgang Vondey, People of Bread: Rediscovering Ecclesiology (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2008), chaps. 2–3.
5 Aaron Milavec. The Didache: Faith, Hope, and Life of the Earliest Christian Communities, 50–70 C.E. (New York: The Newman Press, 2003), 31–33.
6 To be clear, the nature (or existence) of this connection between the Didache, the Gospels, and whatever historical event these accounts might be referencing is by no means a matter of consensus. Without going into a summary of the scholarship that examines the sources of the Didache’s ninth chapter, I will simply gesture toward the lasting relevance of C.D.F. Moule’s “A Note on Didache IX.4” in Theological Studies 6, no. 2 (1955): 240–243. In that brief note, he suggests that the use of the words “gather” and “fragment” in the Didache might be understood as references to the feeding of the multitudes. This suggestion has been referenced by other biblical commentators. See Francis J. Moloney, The Gospel of John (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1998), 198; Paul F. Bradshaw, “Yet Another Explanation of Didache 9-10,” Studia Liturgica 36 (2006): 124–28.
7 Milavec, 330.
8 Milavec, 375–6.
9 What follows is, essentially, an exercise in spiritual exegesis as it is described in Henri de Lubac, History and Spirit: The Understanding of Scripture According to Origen (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2007), 432–50. I would admit, with de Lubac, that “the word [‘spiritual sense’] instills fear in some. It can in fact be open to abuse. But the risk of abuse must not make us ‘extinguish the Spirit.’” (442) Spiritual exegesis allows us to avoid “the belief that everything in the meaning of Scripture is reduced to what the sacred writer was able to explicitly perceive in it.” (441) I would add that, if they are to be effective instruments of Divine Revelation, the sacraments need such attention as well. We cannot reduce the significance of tradition to the human intention that is necessary for—but never can circumscribe—the meaning of revelation. In this essay, I am reading the scriptures and the sacraments from and for a particular context: the pluralistic world in which I live. Ultimately, I am concerned with discovering the spiritual meaning of broken bread. As de Lubac says, “the spiritual meaning of a mystery is the meaning that one discovers, or rather, into which one enters by living this mystery.” (446) Spiritual exegesis cannot be accomplished from anywhere but the believer’s particular location, and the exegesis that follows is no exception.
10 Francis Cardinal Bergoglio, “Evangelizing Implies Apostolic Zeal,” http://en.radiovaticana.va/storico/2013/03/27/bergoglios_intervention_a_diagnosis_of_the_problems_in_the_church/en1-677269.
11 Ad Gentes, #2.
12 See Lumen Gentium, #10: “…that through all [their Christian activities] they may offer spiritual sacrifices and proclaim the marvels of him who has called them out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
13 The use of the term “self-actualization” is not meant to attribute primary agency to the human person. Theotic self-actualization is always a graced movement inaugurated by God and cooperated with by humankind.
14 Pope Francis, “Address of Pope Francis to a Meeting of the Congregation for Bishops,” http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2014/february/documents/papa-francesco_20140227_riunione-congregazione-vescovi.html.
15 Lumen Gentium, #34.
16 Lumen Gentium, #34.
17 With regard to the anamnestic nature of the eucharist, the gathering of the fragmented church is re-membering the church as the Body of Christ.
18 de Lubac, History and Spirit, 431.
19 James F. Keenan, “Proposing Cardinal Virtues,” Theological Studies 56 (1995): 709–29.
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Notes on contributors
David Farina Turnbloom
David Farina Turnbloom is associate professor of theology at the University of Portland and the author of Speaking with Aquinas: A Conversation about Grace, Virtue, and the Eucharist (Liturgical Press, 2017).