Prayer Warriors@ St Mary Help Of Christians Church, Aiken, South Carolina at 118 York Street SE, Aiken, SC 29801-4568 US - Ecumenical Dialogue II Communion

Ecumenical Dialogue II Communion

This past weekend, Ecumenical Dialogue II was held in Aiken this time at First Baptist Church Aiken. Rev. Mr. Robert Pierce was one of the three speakers (along with Rev. Moses Miller and Rev. Rodney Powell). The topic this time was communion. If you have not been able to attend the dialogues, do seriously consider. This is one of the easiest ways to learn about the contrasts and similarities of the different Christian Churches in Faith. The better we understand each other the closer we will become at the foot of the Cross. Admission to the Dialogue is free and social fellowship follows each one. Watch for the next one in the fall, spread the word WORD in your church. Invite a few friends to go with you. CD/Tape Recordings of the Dialgues exist and can be had for the cost of materials to make them from William Collins bbcollins12@earthlink.net 803-642-9651 Here below are the prepared remarks made by Deacon Robert Pierce at the Dialogue. I don't know if anyone is interested in it, but I just finished participating in an ecumenical dialogue on the Eucharist. Attached is my opening presentation, and I thought you mind find it informative and useful. It's not much longer than a standard homily. Enjoy! As a starting point, I want to introduce a second term to go with Holy Communion, and the term is Eucharist. Eucharist, which literally means “thanksgiving,” encompasses the whole of what Catholics celebrate each Sunday, whereas Holy Communion is typically focused more on the elements of bread and wine used during the celebration. The two terms are sometimes used interchangeably. Within the larger context of what the celebration of Eucharist is, there are five basic points to help you understand Catholics better: (see handout) 1. First, we celebrate Mass – the memorial of the Lord’s Supper – every day except Good Friday, though we are only obligated to keep holy the Lord’s Day and a few other special feast days (such as Christmas); 2. A man who is a priest validly ordained by a bishop, who is himself validly ordained in succession from the Apostles, is empowered to act in the person of Christ in consecrating the bread and wine; 3. Because Jesus truly acts through the priest, by virtue of his ordination, when he says “this is my body, this is my blood,” the bread and wine are changed into the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ; 4. The Eucharist, being the body, blood, soul and divinity of the Lord, is central to Catholic life; 5. Those who are in full communion with the Catholic Church, who are in good standing, may receive Holy Communion; normally, others may not. That’s the basics; now let’s go a bit deeper. The memorial of the Lord’s Supper is present at the outset of the Church. We see it on Resurrection Day in the story of the walk to Emmaus. “When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.” We see in Acts 2: “Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts.” In Acts 20: “On the first day of the week, when we met to break bread, Paul was holding a discussion with them.” In his first letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul describes the Last Supper and also conveys that the Church continued to celebrate St. “For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord.” (1Cor 11:23-27) The breaking of bread is in response to Jesus’ command: Do THIS in remembrance of me. But there is more happening than just a memorial meal. “In the sense of Sacred Scripture the memorial is not merely the recollection of past events but the ongoing proclamation of the mighty works wrought by God for men. In the liturgical celebration of these events, they become in a certain way present and real. This is how Israel understands its liberation from Egypt: every time Passover is celebrated, the Exodus events are made present to the believers. (CCC 1363) That way the covenant is ongoing and present, for all times and all people, not just once in history. As we know, God fulfilled the covenant by sending his eternal Son so that we could be saved from sin and united to God. But, how do we participate in the actions of the new covenant? It is quite significant that Jesus uses the word “covenant” only once, because that word had a very specific meaning for the Jews. “Covenant” is used by Jesus only at the Last Supper. “This is the new covenant in my blood.” Catholics celebrate the Eucharist every day as the renewal of the covenant Jesus made in the upper room and completed on Calvary. Whereas in Exodus the Israelites had the Passover meal and the manna in the desert, Jesus gives us so much more – He gives us His Body and Blood in Holy Communion. Listen again to St. Paul. “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord.” The Eucharist is more than just a memorial meal; it is the body and blood of the Lord. St. Paul teaches it another way: “I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation (a communion) in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” (1 Cor 10:15-17) Participation is covenant language, the covenant instituted at the Last Supper, completed on Calvary, and celebrated at every Mass. St. Paul’s language of participation echoes the startling message of Jesus in John 6: “Amen, amen, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you . . . . Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.” (Jn 6:53-56) The faith St. Paul received and faithfully passed on is reflected in the writings of the Church Fathers. Athanasius (in 373 AD) in a sermon to the newly baptized explained the “how” of this great mystery: “So long as the prayers of supplication and entreaties (by the priest) have not been made, there is only bread and wine. But after the great and wonderful prayers have been completed, then the bread is become the Body, and the wine the Blood, of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . (A)fter the great prayers and holy supplications have been sent forth, the Word comes down into the bread and wine – and thus is His Body confected.” By the power of the Holy Spirit, the elements of bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Jesus in the hands of the priest . . . and we participate in that covenant offering.” This belief was not limited to the Early Church, but persists through the centuries such it is affirmed by prominent reformers such as John Calvin, John Wycliffe and Martin Luther. Martin Luther in his Small Catechism writes: “What is the sacrament of the altar? It is the true Body and Blood of Christ under the bread and wine.” In the final analysis, though, the reality of Catholic Holy Communion rests on the authority of Christ, who instituted it, and the authority of the apostles who handed it down. We believe because of Christ’s words, “This is my Body. This is my Blood.” And because of His command, “Do this is memory of me.” So, what does this mean for Catholics? Because Holy Communion is Jesus Christ, the Eucharist is at the center of all we do and believe as Catholics. It is at the heart of everything it means to be Catholic. As the Catechism states, “The Eucharist is ‘the source and summit of the Christian life.’ (CCC 1324) Consequently, our reception of communion in the Catholic Church is an expression of our oneness with the Catholic Church and all it believes. For similar reasons, because of the strong symbolism of communion, Catholics are discouraged from receiving communion in churches with whom we are not one. What does this mean for non-Catholics? Taking all of this into consideration, I hope you are then able to see why a closed communion table is the logical extension of what we believe – communion in the Catholic Church is limited to Catholics who are not impeded by things such as serious sins. On this subject the US bishops wrote “because Catholics believe that the celebration of the Eucharist is a sign of the reality of our oneness of faith, life, and worship, members of those churches with whom we are not yet fully united are ordinarily not admitted to Holy Communion.” Unfortunately, this one restriction gets misinterpreted as meaning non-Catholics are not welcome in our Sunday celebrations. Nothing could be farther from the truth – and I apologize if you have ever been made to feel that way. The US bishops write, “We welcome our fellow Christians to the celebration of the Eucharist as our brothers and sisters. We pray that our common baptism and the action of the Holy Spirit in the Eucharist will draw us closer to one another.” You are welcome to participate in our praise, worship, singing, prayers for forgiveness, scriptures, teaching, because we share these in common as brothers and sisters in Christ. Nonetheless, the Eucharist sheds light on the fact that real differences still exist -- while we may be one in Baptism, the Word, Prayer and Worship, we are still not one at the Altar. It is a reminder that we need to work towards the day when we can be one. And to this end I want to thank you for having me here.

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