Baked Bread by Paul Turner

As a wag has said, it’s easier to believe that bread really becomes the body of Christ than it is to believe that the host is really bread.

The bread of the Eucharist traditionally takes the form of hosts, but some Catholic communities bake their own communion bread. The practice fulfills an instruction for the Mass: “The nature of the sign demands that the material for the eucharistic celebration truly have the appearance of food” (General Instruction of the Roman Missal 283). Authenticity for this most central sign requires that the bread look like genuine food to be broken and shared by the faithful.

Baked bread makes the symbolic connection to the food of the Last Supper. Jesus took the ordinary substances of his dinner table and transformed them into his own body and blood. When the bread offered at Mass more nearly resembles ordinary bread, the full impact of the miracle sinks in. The eternal Son of God becomes truly present to us under the form of the simplest of substances.

Baked bread allows a local community to offer its own gifts for the Eucharist. It also permits a more dignified ritual of breaking the bread during the Lamb of God. The early church referred to the Eucharist as “the breaking of the bread” to stress readiness for sacrifice and the unity of the faithful.

According to the tradition of the Roman Catholic Church, eucharistic bread is unleavened, made from wheat flour and water. When baked by the local community, care should be taken that the bread not be underdone nor baked too hard. If reserved in the tabernacle after Mass, it should be consumed before spoiling or turning brittle.

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Paul Turner, pastor of St. Munchin Parish in Cameron, MO, holds a doctorate in sacramental theology from Sant' Anselmo University in Rome.