Lamb of God

Whether we are going to Grandmother’s house or cooking at home this Thanksgiving, most of us will gather around a table and break bread with family and friends. Breaking bread together has its roots in the word companion. The first part of the word, com means together with in Latin. The second part of the word comes from the Latin panis, meaning bread. To companion someone literally means to break bread with them. This is what Jesus did at the Last Supper and this is what we do whenever we gather around the table of the Eucharist--we break bread together. For the first Christians, the act of breaking bread together was so significant that they named the entire celebration of the Eucharist “the breaking of the bread.”

“They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers.” Acts of the Apostles 2:42

To the Apostles, the breaking of the bread symbolized the unity they shared with Christ and with one another, something echoed by St. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians.

“The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ. Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.”

1 Corinthians: 16b-17

This symbolism was better expressed in the early years of the church, when the priest broke one loaf for all to share. Nowadays the hosts that are consecrated are pieced and prepared in advance and the priest breaks only his host into smaller pieces.

During this breaking of the consecrated Bread, which is also called the Fraction Rite, the Agnus Dei or Lamb of God is said or sung. The text of the Lamb of God repeats the words spoken by John the Baptist upon seeing Jesus:

“There is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” John 1:29

Biblical scholars say when John calls Jesus the Lamb of God, he is referring to the fourth Servant song in the book of the prophet Isaiah:

      “Though harshly treated, he submitted and did not open his mouth;

Like a lamb led to slaughter or a sheep silent before shearers,

he did not open his mouth . . . My servant, the just one, shall justify the many,

their iniquity he shall bear.” Isaiah 53:7-11

In Aramaic, which would have been spoken by John, the words Talya de’laha can be used to mean both “Lamb of God” and “Servant of God.” In the above passage from Isaiah, echoed by John the Baptist, Jesus is prefigured as the Servant-Lamb.

The Lamb of God always ends with the invocation, “Grant us peace.” Whenever we sing the Lamb of God, we give praise to God who desires to share in our broken humanity and grants us a share in his divinity. God’s mercy calls us to imitate the Lamb of God, who was broken for the sake of others. When we do this, we discover the true meaning of the word companion.