What is the central ritual of Christianity?
It’s the breaking of the bread, the sharing, the common meal. This is what Jesus was reported to have done all around: break bread, eat, have parties everywhere, and on those occasions teach, heal, and tell people stories. So that is the ritual that comes down to us: the breaking of the bread. The Eucharist we call it, and that is significant because Eucharist means Thanksgiving. One of the first, earliest descriptions that we have of the Christian community is that they were the ones who broke their bread with thanksgiving. Again, that comes back to our contemporary situation. Daniel Berrigan many years ago said: “What would the world be like if we all sat around one table and broke bread?” What would the world be like if there was one day on which nobody would have to go hungry? If we could only strive for that. What are the Christian teachings about social awareness? Are there examples Jesus gave about helping out? There’s the very famous story of the good Samaritan, of course – tha
