What does the Eucharist, or Holy Communion, mean to you?

I’ve always thought it as one of my favourite parts of a church service, and I think this is because it offers guided space for reflection.

At the same time, something spiritual happens when we consecrate the Holy Communion, which John Calvin thought of as involving spiritual real presence.

In Anglican churches, the Communion liturgy involves the whole congregation declaring the Nicene Creed (or similar) and other statements of the fundamentals of Christianity.

It is, in my view, the ultimate act of orthodoxy in a service because it centres the congregation’s thoughts on what Jesus did on the cross and gives them time to reflect and pray about it.

Its significance its emphasised in the gospel accounts.

In Luke 24, we read an account of the road to Emmaus. This is where the risen Jesus joins some followers during a seven-mile walk from Jerusalem but keeps his identity hidden.

He effectively preaches to them and “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself” (Luke 24:27 NIV).

But it is not until Jesus breaks bread that his followers have an eye-opening experience and can see clearly who he is.

Later in the chapter, he emphasises his bodily resurrection by eating fish in front of a group of disciples, connecting the revealing effect of the communion with his miraculous feeding of thousands with bread and fish after preaching.

Those miracles involving feeding thousands of people are part of signalling who he really is. After feeding the 5,000 asks his disciples: “Who do the crowds say I am?” and Peter has worked out the answer.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer draws together the significance of both word and sacrament in his book The Cost of Discipleship. He writes:

[Jesus] comes to us today, and is present with us in bodily form and in his word. If we would hear his call to follow, we must listen where he is to be found, that is, the Church through the ministry of Word and Sacrament. The preaching of the Church and the administration of the sacraments is the place where Jesus Christ is present.

If we just have sermons, we can create an intellectual Christianity that’s merely like a lecture or a book or goes off in strange directions.

But Jesus emphasised the importance of communion to his disciples, telling them to do it often.

Picture licensed under Creative Commons.