In the early days of the Church, Christians followed the pattern of worship to which they were accustomed. For the most part, they still saw themselves as Jews who believed that Jesus was the Messiah rather than a s members of a new religious group.

 

It was natural to follow the practices that had sustained them all their lives and to live, as St Luke describes in the Acts of the Apostles, in fellowship, praying daily in the synagogues and Temple and coming together to break bread in their homes.

 

The breaking of the bread would have been undertaken by a respected member of the community who, as we read in St Paul’s letter to Timothy, would have shown his suitability by his own conduct and of his family.

 

When the Jewish Christians were expelled from the synagogues, their worship would have had to be almost entirely within their own homes. As Christianity spread it remained a largely underground religion - not least because of the threat of persecution.

 

It was only when Christianity became an established religion and could build places of worship that a new role of priesthood began to evolve.

 

As the letter to the Hebrews makes clear, we have in Christ the perfect high priest - no human can offer a sacrifice which surpasses his own. However, as “creaturely beings”, humans need a human touch - they need to see and to hear in order to help them to glimpse the transcendent. Over time, the Church understood that in breaking bread and blessing cup and speaking the words of Jesus at the Last Supper, people were not simply re-enacting an event which took place years before but were, in ways impossible to explain, they were actually a part of them. They brought the events of the Last Supper and Calvary into their worship - not sacrificing Jesus again - but, somehow deepening and extending that moment when he gave everything for his people.