[Monsignor John Miller] He was different.
This was such a radical version of Christ
and he was outside a church setting.
He was approachable and was very human.
It was not the
Jesus they were familiar with.
[Martha Erlebacher] It’s one of the most interesting
challenges for a sculptor, or anyone.
[piano music]
[Miller] My name is Monsignor John Miller,
I’m a priest of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia
and I was one of the people
who developed the commission
“Jesus Breaking Bread.”
[Erlebacher] I’m Martha May Erlebacher.
My husband, Walter Erlebacher,
was the sculptor of “Jesus Breaking Bread.”
[piano music cont.]
[Miller] Each and every part of this figure
would tell you that he was human
and each and every part was so carefully
considered to do just that.
[Erlebacher] He tried everything,
thought about everything.
[Miller] The gesture, the hair, the finger tips
the fingers, the face.
[Erlebacher] Hundred heads… hundreds.
[Miller] What kind of hair?
What about the angle of
the left shoulder blade?
Which leg should be bent?
[Erlebacher] There was always the question
of what kind of bread to use.
‘Cause what if you used
a piece of Wonder Bread?
It wouldn't have worked.
When Walter hit on this pita bread
that was actually just the thing.
[Miller] And Walt didn’t want him to look
like one personality or one ethnicity
so he brought in
half a dozen different models.
[Erlebacher] Of course he got letters telling him
that Jesus had a beard
which we were always very curious
to know how people knew that.
[Miller] Jesus without a beard?
They would say.
[Erlebacher] ‘Cause the standard,
the standard picture of Jesus you know,
on these prayer cards
you know what they look like.
You know, Jesus has a doleful expression.
[Erlebacher] Anytime you don’t go along
with the stereotype,
people think that you’ve made an error.
[piano music cont.]
[Miller] Back in 1976,
the 41st International Eucharistic Congress
met in Philadelphia.
The statue “Jesus Breaking Bread”
was commissioned for that congress
as was the hymn you’re now hearing.
Its called “Gift of Finest Wheat.”
When the sculpture was unveiled,
Sister Mary Scullion,
with Project Home in Philadelphia,
was there watching.
[Sister Mary Scullion] One of the things
I really like is that it’s outside
because revelation usually happens outside the temple.
There’s more of a tendency
to put God in box, inside a church or a synagogue,
you know, place of worship.
And that’s I think why I like it
outside the temple.
It should call us to something
beyond what we know.
Call us to something
a little greater, more.
[Miller] We all have our images of how God
is supposed to be and of how we are
and when you shake it up
as Walter shook things up
in a beautiful and moving way,
it’s like shining a giant beam of light
on the most basic and fundamental beliefs
we carry with us,
to take us truly beyond ourselves.
[piano music fades]
