Eucharist, the Lord’s Supper, Communion; this sacrament has many names. It is a true communication between God and men. It does not need the traditional elements of bread and wine, they were given by God to help a man understand the ingestion of the Christ (The Word) into one’s soul. As blood is part of flesh, so is the Spirit a part of The Word. When we commune with God, we ingest Christ’s body and blood into our being. This is his Word and Spirit. God’s Spirit was placed in the body that He gave to The Word (Christ). God wants us to constantly affirm our relationship with Him. We should hunger for all His many communications with their accompanying Spirit. You cannot separate the two. They come together. The Spirit is always moving too, along with The Word‘s proclamations, actions, examples, or other manifestations of itself.
“In the beginning was The Word, and The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us”. It is this Word with its accompanying spirit that Christ requested we repeatedly ingest for the growth of our soul. Just as bread and wine digest in the body for the growth of our body, so does the word and spirit cause our immortal soul to grow. The process of eating and drinking bread and wine does nothing without The Word. That carries the Spirit for man’s edification along with it. This Word is our Christ. We symbolically eat Gods Word, His Christ, and drink of His Spirit along with its earthly symbols. We reaffirm this New Covenant given to our whole world.
Why are there two items used for this significant act? It is the marriage of earth and heaven signified by the living Christ. The bread is of the earth, a staple that men need to strengthen and preserve their human bodies on their sojourn through this life. The body of Christ needed this also, while it existed on earth. If necessary, any staple can be used to represent this need of men, but bread is universal.
The wine Christ chose to represent his God-Spirit was a good choice. When it is taken on an empty stomach, it gives a “rush” not unlike the “filling of the Spirit”, which often accompanies God’s touch when one is in prayer or meditating. If no commercial spirits are available for “The Cup”, any beverage will do, as it is the Word and Spirit which we eat and drink in the Eucharist that refreshes and renews us, not the items themselves.
Blood has always been representative of God’s Spirit. In the Old Testament of the Bible, the Lamb’s blood painted on the door posts was God’s Guardian Spirit protecting his people. The blood poured out in a Sacrifice was God’s Spirit poured out on his people, just as the flesh was offered up for humanity. This type of Christ was God’s previous
Communication with man. Christ is God’s communication to man. Moses carried Christ in him as Christ is God’s Word to all men. This is just a matter of semantics.
We do not need these above external elements to commune with God. They only help to remind us of God’s magnificent all – encompassing communications to us mortals which go on constantly bringing his Spirit into our lives in many different forms. One’s own private meditation is an integral part of the eating and drinking of “The Word”. This is the true communion with God! Keep growing and renewing in this way until He comes.