Why Communion is Important

I remember, as a child, deeply longing to receive Communion in church. I had a simplistic view of it, taking literally Jesus' words "this is my body.... this is my blood". I wanted to touch Him, and to receive Him in every part of my being. As I got older, I learned the theological views of others in my denomination and began to see communion a a symbolic reception of Christ, but still important as something commanded by Jesus. I trusted the take my pastors had on it, and somehow missed some very poignant passages in scripture, even though I read the Bible through numerous times and studied it regularly. God is gracious. He is patient. He displayed those qualities to me in abundance. Looking back, I can see that.

Communion is what I so simplistically accepted it to be as a child. In my sophistication (or so I thought), I lost sight of the miracle that is the Eucharist.  As an adult, God began to challenge me. He used my husband's search for what the Church should look like to challenge me to understand the spiritual realities of what the Church does. I became uncomfortable. I desired to meet the demands God was placing on my life. I desired to be obedient to Jesus. That led me to examine the scriptures differently. What I discovered about communion rocked me.

The Gospels have much to say about the significance of Christ's sacrifice and about Communion as the remembrance of it. The Gospel of John contains few of Jesus' miracles, but each one has great significance. Two of them speak directly to what we are to believe about Communion. The first of these is the turning of water to wine at the wedding in Cana.(John 2:1-11) We see in this miracle that Jesus can turn one thing into another. The second is the feeding of the five thousand( John 6:1-14). In this miracle we see that Jesus can multiply things. These are an important precursor to the Last Supper, in which Jesus instituted the rite of Communion. Right after Jesus fed the five thousand, we find Jesus' famous Bread of Life Discourse. (John 6:22-69) Here Jesus says "unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you". After Jesus was resurrected, these words, together with Jesus' words at the Last Supper, would resonate with the Apostles. They would understand the mystery of Jesus' presence in the elements of communion. The significance of the memorial which would bring Christ's sacrifice to the present for all believers became real to them. How seriously did the Apostles take this command of Jesus? We need only look at the words of Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians (11:17-37) to see that they regarded taking Communion unworthily as a sin against Jesus Himself. If Jesus was not being literal when He said "this is my body....this is my blood", this would make no sense.
As it is, Jesus commanded His disciples to receive Him bodily in the Eucharist. He makes the spiritual reality of the elements his very self offered to us. He multiplies himself to us in this miraculous truth. Remember, Jesus revealed this as his public ministry unfolded; first he showed that he can change the very substance of things, then he showed that he can multiply things, then he declared himself to be the bread from heaven by which we all receive spiritual life. Lastly, he taught his disciples how to offer him to all who would believe.  We know that this reality was understood because the men who travelled with Jesus to Emmaus first recognized him in the bread He broke and blessed.
For this reason, Communion is very important. Every Christian should regularly receive Jesus in this way. He wants us to know His presence in a very real way. He wants us to remember that He goes out into the world in us. He has chosen to do His work through His people, who cooperate with the grace He gives them to overcome sin in their lives. This Easter season, repent of those things which hold you back from full cooperation with God's grace, and begin to receive Jesus often in the sacrement by which He gives us His very self.

Interpreting Scripture

The best thing I ever did in seeking to interpret scripture was to stop. Stop. Rather than seeking to interpret scripture, which was really only an exercise in trying to make it mean what I wanted it to mean, I quit. I stopped looking through a denominational lens. I put aside the study Bibles and commentaries and just prayerfully read the scriptures unvarnished, unglossed. I simply read the scriptures and sought to understand exactly what they were saying rather than seeking some hidden meaning.
I was surprised how many things that are explicitly put in scripture that I had either entirely missed or taken to mean something else. Like a swimmer that has finally come out of the chlorine fog, I could suddenly see what was right in front of me clearly.
As I opened my mind to the words of scripture and immersed myself in them, I discovered that I needed to make some difficult changes. Not only did I have a great deal more personal growth to undergo than I had previously imagined, I needed to join a different church. This was a painful decision, and I thought I would lose friends over it. Fortunately, many were running a parallel path of seeking to mature as Christians. They understood that I had to go where I had been led by the Holy Spirit, and they have cheered me on as I have grown up spiritually in many ways.
If you want to grow spiritually, if you want to imitate Christ, stop. Read the gospels without all the study guides at hand. Spend some time reading and thinking deeply about exactly what the scriptures say. St. Benedict called this Lectio Divina. Prayerfully reading scripture and stopping to meditate on the words that really strike us. When the Holy Spirit teaches you something in the scriptures, put it into practice. Each day, as you do this, little by little you will take on the qualities of Christ in your everyday life. I can assure you of this because I have experienced it.
In addition to this, it is important to understand scripture as it was meant. Ask yourself these questions: What was the cultural atmosphere in which this was written? Who wrote it? Who was the intended audience? What was the author's intention?  If you understand the context in which scripture was written, it will take on its intended meaning. There is great treasure stored in the words of scripture. Properly understanding them can greatly enhance your spiritual life and allow you to engage your intellect in tandem with your heart. It is a truly amazing, enlightening experience.
I am not finished growing and changing and perfecting my faith; I am still on
that journey. One day I will reach the perfection I have been called to by the Lord Jesus Christ, and see Him face to face. Until then, I will be on the journey of learning how wide and how deep and how high the savior's love for me is. Keep journeying! :-)

Celebrating St. Patrick's Day Differently

With St. Patrick's Day arriving tomorrow, and with his patronage of my parish, I decided to look a little closer at his life. I wondered, "how would he want us to spend the day in his honor?". He lived so very long ago, and so much legend has been attached to his name that it is sometimes difficult to discern fact from fiction. This is where his writings come in handy.
We see by what he wrote that St Patrick was a man of prayer and a man of action. He asked Christ to be in him during every moment and in every circumstance of his life. His work among the Irish is credited to the conversion of more than 14,000 people. He was known to have lived in poverty even as a bishop. One of the places that is enshrined in his honor is a hilltop where he was said to have spent the forty days of Lent fasting.
What all of this tells me is that St Patrick would not spend his day carousing like the pagans he converted.
The secularization of the holiday together with the legendary status of the saint has brought about a tradition of drunken revelry upon his feast day. This is certainly a long-held tradition. I do not think the man himself would consider it an honor, however.
For this reason, I choose to celebrate St. Patrick's day differently. I plan to spend a little extra time in prayer and contemplation, do something to benefit the poor, and refrain from drinking alcohol and eating rich foods and from overeating.
My parish will be holding a special mass in his honor, offering a simple meal of Irish stew and bread, and contemplating Christ's sacrifice with the Stations of the Cross. I find this a fitting way to commemorate a saint who spent the majority of his life seeking the good of others.