Bread and Wine

07Jan
So they said to him, ‘What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, “He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”’ Then Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’ I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’


-John 6:30-33, 48-51


Each Sunday Episcopalians across the globe participate in the Liturgy of the Table, which includes taking consecrated bread and wine. For some it is the ritual that grounds the week, and for others it is done fairly mindlessly.


During Advent, I read a book about the Eucharist, written by a Catholic. Catholics and Episcopalians part ways in how they interpret what Jesus meant when he said, “this is my body” and “this is my blood”. There was lots of discussion in this book of the “Real Presence” of Jesus in the Eucharist and what that actually means. For me, this debate doesn’t forward my spirituality or my closeness to God.  


The book did, however, have me ask myself, “Exactly what are you consuming when you eat the bread and drink the wine?” I asked myself whether Jesus/the Christ can be fully present to me in this bread and wine, and if the answer is “yes”, how will that happen? Whether the host is the “real” body and blood of Jesus may or may not be true, but it is True in a much deeper sense that Jesus/the Christ is very real and present in the bread and wine, if I open my heart to receive it that way-if I open myself to be changed by the ritual.


So how can I open my heart to receive the Real Presence of Jesus/the Christ when I take part in the Liturgy of the Table? For me it is to ask myself before I take communion: “How are you practicing what Jesus commanded—to love God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind? And how are you loving your neighbor as yourself?” Then to further ask myself, “What or how do you need to change?”


Is there some practice you could institute that would have you find greater meaning in receiving the bread and wine? Is there something that would change it from a habitual action to something that brings you closer to the Real Presence of God?


Musical Reflection - For the Bread Which You Have Broken (Arr. Howard Helvey)


Jesus, thank you for giving us a ritual to keep you close and fully alive to us. Please help me to take part in this ritual in a way that brings me closer to You. Amen.

Worship

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