The Holy Trinity is something hard to define for unbelievers and believers alike, it is the truth, light and love of the world - justice and peace the divinity of God - three in one. Though God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are unique manifestations of God's infinite majesty - the Trinity is one God. God is one, and Christ is God, the Holy Spirit is God - each incarnations of God - equal and working in unison - one God.
In the future I will write a discourse on this Holy Mystery, but tonight the Holy Spirit has placed in my heart a joyful desire to discuss the bounty of God's blessings and desire for relationship with all people through the Holy Eucharist. Communion is where I humbly approach God, as a sinner, and am renewed by His Spirit and find the peace of Christ.
It is easy to distinguish Christ, Jesus as different from God the Father - and yes, Christ is God incarnate, but Christ is the Father and the Father is in Christ and the Holy Spirit is God that dwells in our hearts as a compass to His Mercy, His Law and His Peace and His Justice. God chose to carve out his Spirit into the hearts of men by the passion of God the Son on the cross. Jesus gave us so much more than the cross, which is extraordinary that Jesus - God himself incarnate not only was willing to live and dwell in the flesh - taking on suffering and resisting temptation - Jesus taught us how to live by the laws of God's heart and to find peace and joy abundant even in the midst of suffering and persecution. He sat with sinners and drank with tax collectors - because he wanted to bring the lost into his flock so they could be set free from sin and find hope in God's eternal love. God's wrath is born out of love, His justice is born out of love and His mercy is born out of love.
Jesus gifted us his lessons, his miracles, his endurance and even while preaching for the kingdom of heaven - He understood the feebleness of the flesh and our hunger - our desire of the soul for God and limits we find in fear - He understood the woe of not having enough to eat or a safe place to sleep. Jesus was a migrant, a carpenter from humble means who understood the pressures of the temporal world and the infinite mystery and importance of eternal salvation. God cares for us beyond measure - infinity is even too cloistered a word to describe the boundless love of our God.
God carved his spirit into flesh through the Blessed Virgin Mary and became man in Jesus - and in becoming man God willingly became a servant - a suffering servant who endured every test and every trial so that we can learn to find the truth in His law and also the grace of salvation. God did this because of love - not duty - but love. The Holy Spirit helped to form the world - God said let it be and it was so. For Christ, God the Son, to send forth the Holy Spirit into the hearts of man - allows us to have a fullness of relationship with Our Father - the law is written on our hearts and our advocates - God - three in one is from everlasting to everlasting.
The Holy Eucharist is a remembrance of Jesus's Last Supper. While the Last Supper is commemorated in all Christian denominations the institution of communion has been omitted or downplayed in many sects as not having any real purpose in worship or power through the Holy Spirit. I grew up Presbyterian and while we did have communion once a month it was not a sacrament - but rather just something we did. I learned the blessing of the Eucharist in the Anglican/Episcopal Church and the Book of Common Prayer.
In the Celtic Eucharist I attend we preface the Communion with a beautiful song:
"Be known to us dear Jesus in the breaking of the bread."
The Holy Eucharist is an invitation to feast on God's glory through Christ that binds us to the Spirit of the Word Incarnate, and kindles afresh the Holy Spirit in our soul. It is a feast of Christ's persevering love and spiritual food that is everlasting.
Breaking bread with another person is one of the most intimate and blessed things we encounter in the simple joys and mysteries of life. I have volunteered at homeless shelters and shared a meal with strangers - if I had not broken bread (shared a meal) with them I would have continued to have assumptions about their life - I would not have empathy and compassion for their trials and tribulations, addictions and sufferings - hunger and thirst - volunteering at the Salvation Army and seeing the variety of those in need of food and desperate to be fed both spiritually and physically constantly reminds me of the great gift of the Eucharist.
The night Christ was to be arrested and placed in the hands of death, betrayed by man - he broke bread and ate a meal with His disciples and in that meal - simple and unrefined was one of the greatest gifts Christ gives us from His Ministry - a meal commemorated that Christ lived - Jesus lived as a man who hungered and thirsted and provided for his flock spiritually and physically - He feasted on the eternity of God and told His disciples to focus on the manna of His Spirit which would be revealed in His death and resurrection.
To be served food from Christ in the Communion is a physical experience of eating the bread and drinking of the cup - but the beauty is the physical transformation into a spiritual recognition of God's grace in Christ and the sustaining of the Holy Spirit.
Many dismiss the Communion as having no power other than a simple remembrance - but I have found healing in the Spirit in the Eucharist - is it a magical event - no - but it is a reminder of Christ's peace and sacrifice and our call to feed all those who hunger for the Word and for bread - it is a coming together spiritually with God - sharing in a blessed meal.
To dismiss the Eucharist is to lose a part of the Spiritual gifts Jesus gave us - I know it will not lead to salvation - that comes from Christ alone, but don't we want to be feed spiritually to grow past our need for salvation alone - don't you hunger to have a relationship with Christ build on friendship and honor - love that transcends the fear of salvation. Christ is salvation. What we receive in the Eucharist builds on Christ our cornerstone and emboldens our spirit and helps pulls us away from the sins of the flesh in the remembrance of Christ's life, death and resurrection and feeding on his spirit with thanksgiving. The Eucharist brings us into the Holy Way of his Life and a communion with God's very person - whether it is a symbolic rite as I believe in the Anglican tradition or a physical manifestation of the bread and wine. To argue over those points is a division not from God but the machinations of man's hardened heart.
Whether or not you drink a cup of juice or wine, break bread (I have to use a gluten free wafer) if you believe in the Holy Spirit then you know His Presence is with you as you come to God's table - it is worship, adoration and communion with God's love! What greater gift is there than that love.
The great gifts of the communion:
- Remembrance of Jesus's ministry and his love on earth and in heaven
- Remembrance of Christ's sacrifice and resurrection
- Remembrance of Christ's miracles - particularly I think of the feeding of the 5,000 - Christ feeds us body,mind and soul
- Call to love God's law and be obedient while also an open invitation to feast on HIS mercy and Spiritual food of HIS grace
-Call to ignite the fire anew in our hearts of the Holy Spirit
-Feeding us spiritually
- Call to repent in the confession we make before the sacrament
- Shouts of praise
- Rising above the pains of the world into the peace of Christ - I love how in the Anglican prayer book it says:
"This is the table not of the Church, but of the Lord, made ready for those who love Him and want to love HIM more. So com, you have much faith and those who have little, Come because it is the Lord that invites you."
I think about the parable of the banquet - the Eucharist is God's banquet on earth - our invitation to praise him, be renewed and live in His mercy and break bread with God and our fellow man.
The communion allows our restless souls to rest in God. It forces us to take an account of conscience before approaching the 'throne of grace' as I find the Holy Spirit, Christ and God to call us to the throne of grace when we repent. It gives us new sight as we humble ourselves before the table and a bold faith through the renewal of spirit in the Holy Trinity.
I think it is vital to remember that Jesus himself - commanded his disciples to continue the communion and sacrament of the breaking of the bread in remembrance for Him. As Christians we are called to remember Jesus and be present with HIM through prayer and the Holy Spirit - this is the great gift of communion. And in being present with Christ we are willing to serve Him more and love our neighbors as God loves us.
26 Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” 27 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, 28 for this is my blood of the[b] covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29 I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.” (Matthew 26)
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