Exodus 12: 1 – 14a; Psalm 78: 14 – 20, 23 – 25; I Corinthians 11: 23 – 32; Luke 22: 14 – 30
A homily by The Rev. Gene Tucker, given at Church of the Redeemer, Cairo, IL; and at St. James’ Memorial Church, Marion, IL; Thursday, April 13th, 2006
Have you ever thought about the Sacrament of Holy Communion? Have you ever wondered about what actually is going on during this service, which we celebrate because our Lord commanded us to? Since it was on the evening of this day that Our Lord instituted this Sacrament, it is particularly appropriate that we pause for a few minutes to reflect more deeply on our communion with the Lord in this service.
Christians down through the centuries, and especially ever since the Reformation of the 16th Century, have pondered just what the Sacrament of Holy Eucharist[1] signifies.
And, they have come down on various positions, in response to their reflections….
For example, following the teachings of the great Swiss reformer, Ulrich Zwingli, some believe that the Lord’s Supper (as they would generally call communion) is simply a memorial to Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. So, coming to the Lord’s Supper is merely a response to Jesus’ command to “do this in remembrance of me.” It’s probably fair to say that Baptists, Methodists, and others, take this view of Communion.
Others take the position that the bread actually becomes the body of Christ, and the wine actually becomes the blood of Christ. Somehow, the appearance of the two elements doesn’t change, at least as far as our eyes can see, but there is a true change in the substance of the elements, even as the accidents[2]have not changed. This process is called Transsubstantiation, and is reflected in the Eucharistic theology of the Roman Catholic Church.
Quite naturally, we Anglicans take a “middle road”. Simply put, we don’t believe that Communion is something that we do merely to remember Jesus by. Jesus’ own words, recorded in their earliest written form by St. Paul in Chapter 11 of First Corinthians,[3] seems to indicate that something more than a simple memory is indicated…Otherwise, why would Jesus say “this is my body…this is my blood” as He distributed the elements to His disciples on that first Last Supper? We Anglicans believe in something called real presence[4], that is that, in Holy Communion, Jesus is actually present with us in a way that is unique to any and all of the other ways He is present with us in our lives. But, we don’t believe that the bread actually changes into His body, nor do we believe that the wine actually changes into His blood. As a friend of mine once said, “if we try to explain what actually happens too carefully, we get into trouble.” Yet, Christ is present with us, actually present just as if His physical self were in the room with us, in the Sacrament. Jesus’ own words seem to indicate that real presence is the correct way to regard the Last Supper, the Holy Communion, the Mass.
So, if Jesus is “really present” with us as we eat and drink, what might the implications be for us as we do so?
Two thoughts come to mind:
- The past, present and future are all collapsed into one: time disappears as we unite with the Saints down through the ages, from those first disciples down to the newest Christian, in sharing Jesus’ body and blood. Furthermore, since Jesus took on our flesh and blood, and arose with a resurrection body, taking the tokens of our humanness with Him when He ascended into heaven, we are united outside of time with those who will come to know the Lord in the years to come. We share in the heavenly banquet that the saints of old now have a part in as they see the Lord face-to-face in heaven. Isn’t that awesome?
- “We are what we eat”: If Jesus is really present with us in this Sacrament, then, as we partake of Him, our whole self is transformed, slowly but surely, more and more into His likeness. Just as the physical food we eat directly determines what sort of a physical body we have, so does the spiritual food that Jesus offers us in the Communion of His body and blood transform us more and more into His likeness. It is food that sustains us in the wilderness of this life, just as the Chosen People were sustained by manna in the wilderness during their 40 years of wandering.[5]
Jesus said to His disciples, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the ages.”[6] One of the ways Jesus is with us, “wherever two or three are gathered together in His name”,[7] is in His gift of Himself to us in Holy Communion.
Thanks be to God!
AMEN.
[1] Eucharist comes from the Greek word for “thanks”. Note how many times the word “thanks” appears in the Eucharistic prayers.
[2] Accidents is the technical terms which refers to the actual bread and the actual wine.
[3] Most scholars agree that the first letter to the Church in Corinth was written in the early 50s, AD.
[4] Other Christians also accept the concept of the Real Presence. Lutherans are an example.
[5] John Chapter six makes an excellent comparison of manna to the living bread that Jesus offers.
[6] Matthew 28: 20
[7] Matthew 18: 20
