Discerning His Body
Discerning His Body
"For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgement on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep." (1 Co 11.29-30)
In my travels around the Church over the past 18 years, I have found the "celebration" of the Lord's Supper, Communion, the Eucharist, etc etc...often disheartening and sometimes even alarming!
In some congregations it is an erratic or random event, involving a poorly-prepared, slapdash preamble, unrecognizable elements (cracker biscuits and cordial?), and lackadaisical reception! There are even churches and Denominations which have dispensed with the tradition altogether, holding it to be a custom which is irrelevant, or beneath their "exalted" spirituality.
"But you profane (my name) by saying of the Lord's Table, It is defiled and of its food, It is contemptible. And you say, What a burden! And you sniff at it contemptuously, says the Lord Almighty." (Mal 1.12-13)
But what say our Church Fathers?
Ignatius Theophorus was the third bishop of Antioch, who was martyred in Rome in 107. It is not improbable that he sat at the feet of some of the first Apostles...most likely John the Beloved! Of Communion he wrote, "I desire the bread of God which is the flesh of Christ who was of the seed of David; and for drink I desire his blood, which is love incorruptible."
Bishop Irenaeus of Lyons (130-202), "provided the first great outline of Christian doctrine, a creed and a definition of the Scriptural canon". Concerning the Lord's Supper he taught, "Breaking one bread, which is the medicine of immortality, the antidote against death which gives eternal life in Jesus Christ...Just as the bread, which is made from the earth, when God is invoked is no longer common bread but the Eucharist ("thanksgiving") both earthly and heavenly, so our bodies, after we have received the Eucharist, are no longer corruptible, since they hold the hope of the resurrection."
And Augustine (354-430), the bishop of Hippo in North Africa and "one of the great minds of the later classical world...the greatest of the Fathers", taught concerning the Eucharist, "It is the mystery of yourselves that is laid on the Lord's table; it is the mystery of yourselves that you receive. To that which you are, you answer 'Amen', and in answering you assent. For you hear the words 'the body of Christ', and you reply 'Amen'. "
Thomas Aquinas (1226-1274) was the "Angelic Doctor" whose "Summa Theologica" still underpins much of our theology today. He proposed concerning the Bread and the Wine, "The proper effect of the Eucharist is the transformation of man into God."
And lest we forget the continued and lively existence of the Orthodox Church in "the east" (after The Great Schism of 1054), their scholar Nicolas Cabasilas (1323-1391) wrote, "(In Holy Communion) the Bread of Life Himself changes the person who eats, assimilating and transforming him into Himself."
Might there not be a matter deserving our further attention here?
"For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, 'This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.' For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Therefore, whoever eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup." (1 Cor 11.23-28)
I do believe that our contemporary understanding and conduct of Communion suffers from over-analysis on the one hand...and a studied nonchalance on the other. Many are over-eager to nail down "scientifically" what happens to the bread and the wine; others "study" to determine precisely what does not happen to the elements!
Nevertheless, it is quite clear to me that the Lord Jesus, the Apostle Paul, and our Church Fathers are entirely agreed upon this one thing. Something of ultimate and absolute importance takes place when the Community of Faith gathers around the Table of the Lord to prayerfully share broken bread and poured out wine in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And if we are prepared to treat this event thus (individually and corporately), it seems to me that Jesus promises (according to 1 Cor 11.30) to "feed" us with His strength and His health.
"For you, O Lord, have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before the Lord in the land of the living...How can I repay the Lord for all his goodness to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. I will fulfil my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people." (Ps 116.8-14)
"But here is the bread that comes down from heaven which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that comes down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world...I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him." (Jn 6.50-56)
P.S. Our "modern" Church Father, the consummate revivalist and churchman John Wesley, described Communion as, "A converting ordinance."
