Communion is that thing we do at Church when we eat a piece of bread and then we drink some grape juice. That’s it. That’s what it’s become. Nothing more than a routine motion every once in a while. The importance of this key action has been lost. How is it that we’ve lost a part of the single moment that changed humanity forever? I can guarantee that when Jesus said "do THIS is in remembrance of Me" (1 Corinthians 11:24), that ’this’ doesn’t mean to only go through the motions. ‘This’ doesn’t mean think about all the things you need to get done before the week starts up again. The importance of the action of communion to remember what Christ did for us. It is out of love, respect, and sheer worship that we have communion.But it is an action that has become simplified throughout the years. If we look back, we’ll see that the Greek translation of Communion is Eucharist. Eu being ’good,’ and charist being ’gift.’ Jesus was the Eucharist, or good gift. He died on the cross for us. He endured unbearable pain. His body was broken. His blood was spilled. His flesh was ripped. Nails were hammered through his wrists. He endured the most painful experience known to man by dying on the cross. And all for what? A sinful species that has constantly ignored his love and thrown dirt upon his name.
What if when Jesus said "do THIS in remembrance of me," He meant to break you’re body for the b
roken. Pour out you blood for the lost ones. Endure the pains of sacrifice. What if He meant live a life of communion? To live a life that follows the Eucharist? We should be a “good gift.” We should give every ounce of strength, every breath of air, every word spoken, to serve others. Christ lived his life as the Eucharist. We need to learn to take communion as a reminder that we should live a life of service. Communion needs to become something more than what it has been.
1 comment:
Drew, I like what you say here. I am a Celtic Christian who attends a local Episcopal church and we have Eucharist every week. I think you are right about a lot of us (perhaps more so for those of the household that have Eucharist every time we meet).
In the Episcopal church, we go to the altar to receive the elements. This has come to mean (to me) a thin place, a place where the two parts of God's 'very good' creation become tangible. When I take the elements, I am taking a piece of 'heaven' with me.
But, in the Celtic tradition, we see those things as not the end themselves but pointing to a greater reality. That is, the 'thin place' is all around us. Like you stated, we have lost the sacredness of the Eucharist, but we have also lost the sacredness of all of life. The Eucharist points to God being 'with us', in us, and with and in all of creation -- in the bread and wine, in ourselves, in our neighbors, in all of creation. It points to what we are deepest inside. It reminds us, as you put it so beautifully in your last paragraph, what we are supposed to be and do.
Thank you, my dear brother.
In the Name of the Three in One,
the One in Three,
OD
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