The Significance of a Sacrament: Communion

 This will be the final post in this series, which means that I have actually finished a series that I started! Obviously, by the title you can tell, dear readers, that this blog post shall be about the sacrament of communion, also called the Eucharist.

The Eucharist is perhaps the most important sacrament. I say this because the Church life revolves around the Eucharist. Our Divine Liturgies are centered on the sacrifice of the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the most public and communal sacrament.

Let me explain that last sentence. 

With the other sacraments, they are typically only done between the priest and the parishioner, or in the case of matrimony between two people - and even then the Eucharist is given to the couple. With confession, it is just you and the priest. With Holy Unction, it is usually between you and the priest (or family members who may also be sick) except for that one time that there is a service for Holy Unction. Holy Orders are for the men becoming priests.

Naturally, the laity are involved in many of the sacraments (such as a Chrismation when the entire parish will yell, "SEAL!" during certain times, or at an ordination when they yell, "AXIOS!") But those other sacraments aren't done every single week (I guess confession could be done every week).

The Eucharist is communal, meaning every single person is partaking (unless some are abstaining for whatever reason), including the laity and the clergy. And this happens every single week - aside from mission parishes that only have a priest visit occasionally. I believe there are monasteries that celebrate the Eucharist every day, but I am unsure of that as I have never been to a monastery (yet!).

So, a little bit of background... In Greek, Eucharist is εὐχαριστία and means: thanksgiving, or giving thanks. We Orthodox also believe in the Real Presence, or that the bread and wine literally become the body and blood of Jesus. This belief is held by many other Christian denominations (and no, I'm not arguing that just because the majority believe it makes it true), Catholics, Lutherans (supposedly, I've met some "modern" Lutherans and I couldn't tell you what they believe any more), Anglicans, Episcopalians (again, supposedly), and I'm sure there are more that I'm forgetting.

So, how does bread and wine transform into the body and blood? I don't know. The Roman Catholics came up with transubstantiation to explain how this is done, but the Orthodox don't necessarily follow that belief. Why do I believe that the bread and wine become the body and blood? Because it is what the Church has taught forever, and that even the Last Supper was also the body and blood of Jesus.

I've heard others state that the Last Supper could not possibly be the body and blood of Jesus, as Jesus was still alive. Apparently they forgot that Jesus is God and can do quite literally anything.

Anyway.

Most Christians are aware of and have taken communion. In the West this will often times look like oyster crackers and Welch's grape juice... because that is what they are in non-liturgical denominations. In Western liturgical denominations (Catholics, Anglicans, etc) this will be a thin circular wafer and a chalice of wine. In Eastern churches actual leavened bread is used, and instead of getting the bread separate from the wine, it is added to the wine and given to the communicant on a spoon.

I remember taking communion at the various Baptist and other churches I attended growing up, taking the oyster cracker and passing the plate to the next person, then a little later taking the small cup of juice and passing the plate to the next person. This was done typically once a quarter, and for some reason was always at the evening services. There may have been times that communion was done in the morning service, but I can only recall it being done during the evening.

I also remember my first visit to an Episcopalian parish and taking communion there, since they have open communion. I was a little familiar with what was happening as my mother worked at a Lutheran parish after my parents split, but the Lutherans practiced closed communion and I never got to partake. In fact, the priest there wanted to put me through confirmation classes, but my mother shot that down, because the Lutherans were closet Catholics and my mortal soul would be in danger. So the most I got at the Lutheran church was the priest blessing me as he went down the line - something my mother also put a stop to by not allowing me to go down with the rest of the parishioners.

So, I was a bit surprised when going down the line at the Episcopalian parish, expecting to just receive a blessing, and being given a wafer and a sip from the chalice. I was surprised to say the least, especially when I tried to explain that I was not Episcopalian.

I was also surprised because despite the liturgical feel of the service they had drums and an electric guitar - something even the Baptist church across the street did not have at the time. Having such instruments at church was a foreign concept to me, though I was aware that some churches had them.

 I remember asking my mother (at the Lutheran parish) and my father (at the Episcopalian parish) why they had communion every Sunday as opposed to once a quarter, but I don't remember their answers aside from its just how some churches do things. Even though I knew at the time that both the Lutherans and the Episcopalians believed in the Real Presence, I did not understand how important that belief was - to me, communion was just a symbol; communion was a thing we simply did in remembrance of Jesus at the Last Supper.

Now, I really and truly believe that the Eucharist is the Body and the Blood of Christ, because during the readings of the Early Church Fathers I saw that they too believed in the Real Presence.

We can see in the book of Acts that Christians met regularly to "break bread" meaning to celebrate the Last Supper. All of those house churches you hear and/or read about from the earliest times of Christianity were not just simple get togethers where some guy gave a reading and another played the lyre as the people sang some hymns. Instead, the house churches were liturgical in their very nature. The earliest house church we have evidence of is the Dura-Europos church from around AD230 and has icons and other such things throughout. Add in the fact that the earliest Christians also worshiped in the synagogue with the Jews (such as can be seen in the book of Acts where it is stated that certain disciples went to pray the hours [3:1, and 10:9]) and we know that the Jews worshiped in a liturgical manner from before that time to now as well.

In 1 Corinthians 11:27-30 we see Saint Paul stating, 

"Wherefore whosoever shall eat of this bread, and drink of this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep." (KJVAAE, emphasis in orginal)

He is putting an awful lot of emphasis on making sure that we partake worthily of communion for something that is just supposed to just be a symbol. We can plainly see that there was a great emphasis put on the Eucharist from the earliest times since the early Christians met together to break bread and St. Paul is telling us to make sure we partake worthily lest we face damnation. Even without believing in the Real Presence, we see the importance of the Eucharist in the life of the early Christians.

Saint Ignatius of Antioch writes about the Eucharist around AD110, "They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father, of His goodness, raised up again. Those, therefore, who speak against this gift of God, incur death in the midst of their disputes." (Epistle to the Smyrnaeans)

Saint Justin Martyr in his First Apology describes (circa AD155) what the typical Sunday worship service looked like,

“And we afterwards continually remind each other of these things. And the wealthy among us help the needy; and we always keep together; and for all things wherewith we are supplied, we bless the Maker of all through His Son Jesus Christ, and through the Holy Ghost. And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons. And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need. But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead.”

 And then he also describes the Eucharist and the Real Presence,

“And this food is called among us Eucharistia [the Eucharist], of which no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration, and who is so living as Christ has enjoined. For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Saviour, having been made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh. For the apostles, in the memoirs composed by them, which are called Gospels, have thus delivered unto us what was enjoined upon them; that Jesus took bread, and when He had given thanks, said, ‘This do ye in remembrance of Me, this is My body;’ and that, after the same manner, having taken the cup and given thanks, He said, ‘This is My blood;’ and gave it to them alone.”

From the writings of St. Justin Martyr we can see that during their Sunday worship service (Liturgy) the early Christians gathered and had bread, wine, and water which the priest prayed over. This is still done in the Orthodox Church today, when the priest adds warm water to the wine, and then also the bread.

Keep in mind that St. Justin Martyr is writing around AD155, which is roughly 60 years after St. John wrote the book of Revelation (AD96). Saint John the Evangelist died around AD100, St. Ignatius of Antioch around AD110 or so, and St. Justin Martyr was born around AD120. St Justin Martyr was a philosopher - he studied many different schools of philosophy before he became a Christian, so you can be assured that he would have studied Christianity in depth before he started writing about it. St. Ignatius was a disciple of St. John the Apostle and tradition says that he is the little child the Jesus took in his arms and blessed. This means that this was not a pagan influence on the Church, but rather the Tradition that was passed down from the Apostles to the rest of the Church.

We see that the Eucharist was something that was seen as very special and practiced often from the Apostles themselves to early saints such as Ignatius and Justin Martyr. Truly (or verily as I prefer) the Eucharist appears to be the most important sacrament. But why?

Because the Eucharist is a sacrifice of love. If the sacraments are seen as an out pouring of God's grace, then the Eucharist is doubly so as God is literally giving Himself to us, and we are giving ourselves to God in return by accepting His offering. 

Fr. Alexander Schmemann sums it up rather nicely, 

"The Eucharist is Christ, himself. The Eucharist is his Eucharist, and he is the Eucharist. It is he who offers, and it is he who is offered. Christ is the perfect man, who stands before God. Christ, alone, is the perfect Eucharistic being. He is the Eucharist of the world. In and through this Eucharist, the whole creation becomes what always was to be, and yet, failed to be." (The Eucharist is...)

 Please read the rest of that source, it is wonderfully beautiful.

In conclusion to this post, and this series (yay!), the Eucharist is the sacrament from which all other sacraments flow. The Eucharist is the offering of God - offering Himself to us - and also an offering to God. The Eucharist has always been a central point of Christian worship, it is what binds us Christians together as we - the body of Christ - partake together of the Body and Blood of Christ.