For the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ today, I was just reflecting a little on Holy Communion. I was putting some theses on Twitter, but then I decided to make a blog post out of them:
1. Holy Communion is God's passionate desire to unite His divine life with us, not our reaching out to try to grasp some grace we might think we need.
2.. Holy Communion is not a reward for good behavior, but medicine for those striving to be converted from sin.
3. The words of the minister, "The Body/Blood of Christ" are a personal address. At this moment we are called by our deepest name, our most durable identity. This is why it's reducing and misguided to say, "So-and-so, the Body of Christ."
4. To receive Holy Communion is to consent to becoming the Body of Christ, a Body both broken for the healing of this world and glorified for its salvation.
5. Thus, receiving Holy Communion is both a consent to be converted and the very source of this willingness.
6. In Holy Communion we consent to take the sacrifice of the Cross into our bodies and thus become instruments of the divine humility which defeats all human violence and misery.
7. Holy Communion both signifies and accomplishes the unity of all the faithful, but it also displays to both the Church and the world the judgment between those who assent to revelation and those who do not. Sometimes we try to dismiss the sign of division that Holy Communion becomes, but this is to impoverish the real unity it accomplishes.
4 comments:
Thank you for making a blog post out of this.
"Your great intention in receiving Communion should be to advance, strengthen, and comfort yourself in the love of God. If worldly people ask you why you receive Communion so often, tell them that it is to learn to love God, to be purified from your imperfections, delivered from misery, comforted in affliction, and supported in weakness."
- St. Francis de Sales
Beautiful! Thanks for the quote!
from an orthodox christian, these are true gems. thank you.
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