Today’s hymn from Sing Praise is “One bread, one body, one Lord of all” by John Foley. Unsurprisingly it’s about Holy Communion, or should I say the Mass, since the composer is a Jesuit.
The chorus emphasises the unity of all Christians as the body of Christ: “And we, though many, throughout the earth, we re one body in this one Lord”. The three short verses give some examples of the differences that can divide, but should unite us: Gentile or Jew (religious tradition), servant or free (class/status), woman or man (gender), different gifting. The last verse refers back to the bread itself as a metaphor for gathering: “Grain for the fields, scattered and grown, gathered to one, for all”.
I find this strand of Catholicism, stressing our unity in the Sacrament, to be positive and encouraging, though at odds with the Vatican’s continuing insistence that non-Catholics, even though baptised in the name of the Trinity, should not participate in the sharing of bread.
I found this a peculiarly unconvincing lyric, and I did seriously consider not singing it. I think it is because I was never really very convinced by Paul’s line (1 Cor 10:17) being taken as a stand-alone one-liner: that we are one body BECAUSE we all partake in one loaf. It seems to me that if Paul was really trying to argue that the sharing of one loaf makes us into one body, he would have put this verse in a place in the letter when he was trying to argue that we are one body – in chapter 11 or alongside 12:13 – rather than where he puts it in the section about whether or not to eat meat which has been pre-sacrificed to idols in the market place. He really means not that we are all one with each other but that we are all one with Christ and therefore constrained to behave in Christ-like ways. I think I would paraphrase the paragraph as:
“10:12. If you think you are standing firm, be careful you don’t fall – for (v13) God will provide you with a way to resist temptation. (v16) After all, aren’t the cup and bread of the Holy Communion an expression of the fact that we are joined to Christ? (v17) Doesn’t the one loaf and one cup remind us that we are one with Christ, (v18) just like the one sacrifice in the Temple reminded the OT people of Israel that they were one with the Lord? (v19) I don’t mean the act of eating the food is significant, what I mean is (v21) aren’t the bread and wine of the Holy Communion reminders that we should partake of Christ rather than of demons?”
In other words, I think the song has the cart before the horse: it should really be something like
Let us, though many, be joined with Christ,
and like one supper which we share.
For we are purchased at such great price
by him who suffered, bringing God’s care.
For me, the chorus of this song is too prolonged and the verses are too short. For me the verses are too much simple repetition of slogans and not enough argument of a position. For me, verse 3 undermines the whole rationale of the song – the “one bread” turns out to be made of many separated (scattered) grains, individually grown and then gathered together rather than organically unified.