The Real Presence of Christ
Today during Holy Week we celebrate The Last Supper, which is commemorated with a practice called Communion. In Methodism, Communion is offered once a month, usually the first Sunday of the month. Though this isn't as often as Catholicism (which offers Communion at every Mass), I have to admit when I first joined the Methodist church, I was skeptical of the frequency of this practice.
I didn't really get it, it seemed excessive. I now know that is because I was viewing the tradition as rote, repetitive, and ritualistic. Even though, I do consider myself ritualistic. I have my fair share of OCD tendencies. I benefit from routine, in fact, it is quite connected to what I do for a living - bookkeeping. I often joke that while I am really not that supernaturally gifted at math, I am highly methodical in my processes and that practical strength has served me well in all the accounting roles I have held over the years.
Even so, before I really understood Communion, I honestly felt kind of bored and annoyed by it. Yet, I knew for the tradition to persist as it has in so many forms over the centuries, it must be important, so I paid attention to any commentaries or sermons I came across that helped me reflect upon this practice.
The one that has impacted me the most came from a Catholic Bishop I follow, Robert Barron. I will never be able to put it as powerfully as he did, so I will link the homily itself below for those who are interested. But essentially, what he impressed upon me that day was that the sacrament of Communion was not just a remembrance that we fondly entertain in our minds as we dip the wafer and drink the juice, it is a true invitation to really, actually come into the presence of Christ and sit at his table and accept his sacrifice.
He supports this by examining the exchange that occurs in John 6 when Jesus proclaims, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst," (v.35) which harkens back to the Eucharist elements, Communion.
Even as his disciples kind of gawk at the proclamation that this practice would be the portal by which humans will commune with Jesus really, truly, spiritually for all of time to come, Jesus does not mince his words. In fact, he leans further into the reality of them. Bishop Barron goes on to illuminate various examples in the Bible that demonstrate Jesus does not only speak symbolically, but what he says always comes to fruition. The words he speaks are deliberately chosen, real and true. So when he states at The Last Supper, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me,” and “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you." (Luke 22:19-20) Not only does he mean it, but it is true for all eternity in every remembrance of this important meal.
As the concept of Jesus' real and true presence at every communion table I'd ever attended began to wash over me, I felt a little like the nervously sweating emoji..."Sorry, Jesus, when I said Communion was boring and repetitious, I didn't know you meant our remembrance conjured your ACTUAL presence..."
Luckily, that is the developmental arc of faith. I do not think that God expects us to understand everything (or anything, for that matter) in one go. Instead, as we accept Christ, our spiritual formation begins and we go deeper and deeper into the layers of spirituality and our faith and we discover more about who we are and who God is and who we are IN God. This is the lifelong work, in my opinion, so it's best to just buckle up and settle in.
I have come, now, to deeply love the practice of Communion. Not only does it fill me with life changing joy and gratitude to experience the presence of God and his sacrifice for our sins, but it helps me see the Real Presence of Christ in other places, too.
In the acapella hymns of a local sacred harp singing with a harmony of voices lifting his name high, at an assembly line of strangers who all showed up at the same time to pack and deliver Thanksgiving meals for families who have holes in the walls of their homes, in the wake of a community grieving unexplainable, back-to-back losses of innocent, young children, in the quiet meeting space of a small group bible study where members pour over the words of scripture, in over 225 joyful children hunting easter eggs across a methodist lawn dappled with warm sun and cool breezes. He is in every one of those places, in real time, real space, fully, actually present.
Somewhere along our spiritual development we learn that presence has nothing to do with physically seeing, it is a heart-felt sense.
I was thankful to have had this revelation by the time my children began to participate in Communion. I will never forget the first time I witnessed their small hands cupped over the altar railing at our then home church, kneeling quietly on the floral cushions sewn by the loving work of some long-standing, steadfast church member. Tears swelled in my eyes as I observed their bowed heads, their soft features all surrendered to the God they were just barely becoming to know.
My oldest, first, took the bread, drank the juice, over a blessing from our pastor who called him by name. Our pastor then moved to speak over my youngest, the tiniest reception of God's grace I had ever witnessed bringing me now to the brink of all but exploding in love and wonder and awe. He spoke to him, placing the now very real to me body of Christ in his tiny hands, "Body of Christ given for you, Harlan," and handing him the now very real to me blood of Christ in a miniature cup, "Blood of Christ, given for you, Harlan."
And then my sweet child stuck out his tongue and blew a strawberry at our pastor.
I could honestly feel Jesus laughing in the room with me as I took my Communion and thanked him for the long and winding developmental arc of our faith, at which his very real presence is ever attendeth.
#thanksbetogod