Think about Communion, the Eucharist ...

This is a clarification and extension of the previous essay that I published concerning the Eucharist. I am discussing my own faith, and trying to bridge an old dispute which has divided the Church on account of political intransigence.

How do we regard Christ's body & blood?
1. sacrifice - He gave Himself for us.
2. communion - We meet & share w/ Him.
3. viaticum - He shares his Life with us.
4. eucharist - We have the Good Gift.

Whenever the faithful share Communion, or the Eucharist, as we come together to worship, we must assent, and not disagree. It is the actual true flesh & blood of Christ, as He is now, in Heaven, transformed into Spirit. We do not see it, in the same way that his disciples did not recognize Him after the resurrection, until He chose to reveal himself. The "gardener" was Jesus, and the "bread" is Jesus. On the road to Emmaus, they didn't recognize Him, until He broke bread with them. As He said, "If you do not chew on my flesh, and gulp my blood, you have no life in you." This is not bloody meat, or cannibalism, which was strictly forbidden by Moses' Law, but the spiritual, eternal, actual body of the Risen Lord God, which He is NOW sharing with us, BECAUSE it has his life in it. This is real spiritual food which gives us true life. How can this mean anything else?

How could Jesus say this to his disciples at the Last Supper, before He died and rose again? The Eucharist is an eternal act of grace, performed once, in time and beyond time and for all time. Being God, Jesus could make this eternal sacrifice and infuse/combine the visible bread with his spiritual flesh, so that all who have faith in Him, whether they understand or not, so long as they give assent, may eat his body and drink his blood. He knew, at the time, that the disciples had no idea what He was saying, but they would give their assent to whatever He said because "you have the words of eternal life." Their faith satisfied all of his conditions.

Only Jesus knew that, by this eternal action, He was putting his own body and blood and soul and divinity into this holy sacrament of the Eucharist in Truth, reality and substance for the faithful to receive, but that was enough. He would leave the mystery for the Church to figure out later. We, the faithful, cannot ever know whether the "accidents" of bread and wine, which we continue to perceive after the fact, remain or have been somehow peculiarly  transformed in "substance" beyond our ability to sense. But by faith we assent, and assume that "whatever Jesus said" has in Truth been accomplished forever.

In the same way, the faith of any believer passes as satisfying to Jesus, so long as they do not actively deny his words and refuse to accept the sacrifice that He gave for us. Those who say that the Most Holy Eucharist is only a sign, a figure of speech, or a symbol, stand on the same ground as Jesus' hearers who left off from following Him, because his discourse at Capernaum offended their own sense of propriety. Indeed, He gave us his flesh and blood, to eat and drink, as He promised, and as He commanded us to continue. "Do this in memory of Me."

And if the Catholics, Orthodox, Coptics, Lutherans or whichever assembly, want to properly perform the ritual blessing of the elements, done by an ordained minister proclaiming the actual presence of the body and blood of Christ, as Jesus did, then that host and the sanctified wine have been transformed by Jesus' eternal act, for our benefit. We should partake of it, with a contrite heart having confessed our sins to the Lord, and in all due reverence and gratitude for his mercy. It has become a sacrament, and an effective means of His grace. Any who deny this have chosen dissent and disagreement over community and brotherhood.

Afterwards, if any of that which has been blessed may remain unconsumed, let it then be treated with correct reverence, as the Presence of Our Lord. Once this is done, there can be no question of ever removing the Holy Presence, or of its loss, by eventual dissipation, evaporation or expiration. It should be retired securely, awaiting the next opportunity to participate in the sacrament, or as may be customary, put on display for veneration and adoration by those who seek to pray and meditate close to His Presence.