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Eucharist of Bread and Fish

Sister Barbara Fiand spoke about two different Eucharists in the early Church...the Eucharist of the bread and the fish and the Eucharist of the bread and the blood.  Early Christians remembered Jesus with the bread and fish and the sign of the fish came to represent Christ for them.  The Eucharist of the bread and the fish is about the abundance of God's merciful love.  Jesus taught through multiple examples that by sharing our meal with everyone all will be fed and the kingdom of peace will prevail.  The disciples on the road to Emmaus failed to recognize him after the Resurrection until the breakfast of bread and fish.  Later when the early Christians broke bread in secret to remember Our Lord the places where they gathered were marked with the sign of the fish.  For the Eucharist of the bread and fish no priest was needed.  Jesus was remembered by the community as one body with no one at the head but Jesus.  The Eucharist of the bread and the blood came out Greco-Roman rituals of sacrifice.  As Christians began to organize themselves into a state religion under Constantinople they incorporated some of the traditions of the sacrifice of the polytheistic Roman culture.  A priest was needed to preside at these Eucharists and the bread and wine became symbols of the body and blood of the sacrifice.

She made the point that the Eucharist is a communal remembrance of the Lord's supper and his teaching about all being fed.  She indicated that Jesus time and again spoke about the need to include all people, especially the most marginalized, most ostracized.  Today there is a danger that the Church is falling into an elitist attitude about the Eucharist stemming from the sacrificial rite of the body and blood and who is "worthy" or "not worthy" to receive.  She implied that the early Christian communal Eucharist of the bread and the fish is an alternative to consider.