Broken Bread and Broken Bodies: The Lord's Supper and World Hunger

By Joseph A. Grassi

This timely book shows how a deep understanding of and participation in the Eucharist can mobilize not only individual sharing but community action to end hunger. Calling it a "new food-language for the world" Joseph Grassi shows how meaningful celebration of the Lord's Supper can and should promote efforts to eliminate the poverty and oppression that leave so many hungry today. Book jacket.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1570755302
• ISBN13: 9781570755309
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Orbis Books
• Length: 112 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.5" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

WE INSPIRED BY SACRAMENTUM CARITATIS AND OUR BISHOPS' PLACE AT THE TABLE FIND THIS BOOK GIVES US THE

In his recent groundbreaking Apostolic Exhortation Sacramento de La Caridad: Sacramentum Caritatis, Our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI writes, among other things: "We cannot remain passive before certain processes of globalization which not infrequently increase the gap between the rich and the poor worldwide. We must denounce those who squander the earth's riches, provoking inequalities that cry out to heaven (cf Jas 5:4)." "The Lord Jesus, the bread of eternal life spurs us to be mindful of the situations of extreme poverty in which a great part of humanity still lives: these are situations for which human beings bear a clear and disquieting responsibility." " . . .less than half of the huge sums spent worldwide on armaments would be more than sufficient to liberate the immense masses of the poor from destitution. This challenges the human conscience." "The food of truth demands that we denounce inhumane situations in which people starve to death because of injustice and exploitation, and it gives us renewed strength and courage to work tirelessly in the service of the civilization of love. From the beginnings, Christians were concerned to share their goods (cf. Acts 4:32) and to help the poor (cf. Rom. 15:26)." Our United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has published numerous documents regarding the horrors of mass starvation, or poverty, and of the Eucharistic necessity of feeding the hungry, including in such courageously prophetic works as A Place at the Table: A Catholic Recommitment to Overcome Poverty and Economic Justice for All/10th Anniv. Ed. (Publication / United States Catholic Conference). Inspired by these missioning statements from all levels of our hierarchy, we might find within this present small treatise the means to begin to fulfill Our Lord's command to feed the hungry, a corporal work of mercy frequently demonstrated, modelled and urged upon us by Jesus Christ Himself, who ultimately gave His Life to feed us evermore, whose in final meeting with his friends and apostles broke bread and gave it to them, and to us, saying: Take and Eat, For This is My Body. The early Church considered the sharing of food an act of agape, of purest Love. This book considers carefully, prayerfully, this history and our call to feed the hungry today as an essential act of any follower of Jesus. The Catholic Worker's constant and primary mission was ever the feeding of the hungry, even when there was little food to share, only a few baskets of bread and some fish. Read our great American Catholic Dorothy Day's Loaves and Fishesand her correspondence with Commonweal in Dorothy Day: Writings from Commonweal. The present author, a professor of theology and prolific writer in this important field of presenting Gospel passages in relation to our present call as practicing Christians, for over twenty years coordinated the Skip-a-Meal program to serve the hungry and the needy. Here he urges even us in our sluggish ways to effective ac

Eucharist as a Doorway to Political Action

In the preface to this new edition of Broken Break and Broke Bodies, Grassi speaks for the many when he asks what one person can do about the suffering of more than 15 million people who die of starvation each year. The answer, he says, begins with a deeper understanding and participation in the Eucharist to help mobilize effective individual and community action. To that end, he devotes Part 1 of the book to a survey of pertinent social, economic, political, and religious forces at work in Israel at the time of Jesus' life. It also focuses on Jesus' commands about discipleship and examines the relationship between discipleship and the central theme of Jesus' life, service to the poor, the hungry, the oppressed In addition, Grassi suggests that meaningful celebration of the Eucharist can lead to the "political and social action necessary to eliminate poverty and oppression, the root causes of world hunger." Part 2 examines how the Eucharist is meant to continue and expand Jesus' mission of human liberation and emphasizes the nature of the Eucharistic meal as one of sharing with the hungry and poor.