A Meditation on Making Bread
Emma Restuccia
There are a few positive sides of quarantine and staying at home these days. One being that everyone will re-emerge from this time at home as expert bakers, after months of perfecting the flawless baguette or cultivating a sourdough starter. While the number of posts I have seen about banana bread and sourdough have made me chuckle, I admit I, too, have hopped on the artisan loaf train.
Another positive side to all this is the chance for some increased silence and meditation, if one can find it amidst the maddening crowd of the world. So why not combine these two quarantine hobbies? There are thousands of basic “5 minute” bread recipes that make beautiful loaves. Having just celebrated the feast of Corpus Christi - the Body and Blood of Christ - baking can offer the opportunity for a rich meditation on bread in the spiritual life.
One of my favorite bread recipes has just four ingredients: water, yeast, salt, and flour. Each of these elements, in their simplicity producing together a unified loaf, has their place in the fullness of faith and in the teachings and parables of Christ.
Water, of course, has too many scriptural references to mention. But perhaps one of the most significant is Christ as the provider of the “living waters” that is the Spirit and truth of the Gospel and revelation. Water is also the outward sign of our salvation in baptism.
We hear of yeast in the parable of the leaven, in which Christ teaches that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a little yeast which a woman mixes with flour until the whole batch is leavened (Matt 13:33). This is the superabundance of grace God provides and the transformative, lifting power of the Church in the world.
On the other hand, in different parts of scripture, yeast symbolizes the hidden corruptive influences of the world. Salt is mentioned famously in the Sermon on the Mount, when Christ calls his followers the “salt of the earth” (Matt 5:13). While “salty” has the modern, woke meaning of being bitter or upset, Christians are called to be salt by entering into the world to season it with grace and virtue, and to preserve souls in the truth.
Finally, we hear of wheat in John 12:24: “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” Christ also teaches of wheat throughout his parables as the faithful being the precious wheat among the weeds and chaff of the world.
All of these physical elements, part of breadmaking, are also a part of us and our paths to holiness. Tangible things are part of the spiritual life. God knew we would need these real, present things to aid us on our way to salvation; that is why he gives us the Eucharistic bread - his flesh - as his true presence, our bread for the journey.
The steps of bread making take foresight, gentleness, and patience. The ingredients are kneaded and heated into the cohesive whole of the bread loaf. Like the loaves that undergo resting, rising, and baking periods before they reach their crusty splendor, so we rest and rise in Christ to achieve life abundantly, just as Christ rested in the dark tomb before rising to his glory. By heeding the lessons of these parable elements, by meditating on how Christ speaks of water, yeast, salt, and wheat, we are transformed to more than ourselves. We are made one in the Body of Christ.
Bread, once touched by Christ’s blessed hands, is sacred now. And while the bread one makes are just loaves that will leave one hungry again, through them, one can meditate on the eternal Bread that is forever. In this contemplation of the bread loaf, one learns of the Master Baker, kneading his creatures, his loaves, into masterpieces, into the fullness of being.
