THE EUCHARIST – PAST, PRESENT & FUTURE

SERMON PREACHED BY FR. TONY NOBLE ON MAY 25^th, 2008

1 Corinthians 11:26 "As often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes."

The feast of Corpus Christi comes after Trinity Sunday to celebrate the gift of the Eucharist from Jesus to his people. The last supper is, of course, when the Eucharist was first celebrated by Christ - and Maundy Thursday is when we commemorate that. It ushers in the Triduum, with its great celebrations of the mystery of our redemption.

The night of Maundy Thursday, however, is overshadowed by Good Friday and the Cross. Even though we have the wonderful procession of the Blessed Sacrament at the end of that Liturgy, the procession finishes at the altar of repose - and we go straight into that night of Jesus' betrayal and Passion.

In that Liturgy the washing of feet also overshadows the institution of the Eucharist - and rightly so. And being in Holy Week we cannot escape Jesus' words: "This is my body, which will be given for you", for they take us straight to his body on the Cross, given up for us.

In a sense Maundy Thursday is mostly about the past. But in 1 Corinthians 11:26 Saint Paul makes it clear that the Eucharist is about the past, the present, and the future:  

"For as often as you eat this bread" - the present

"You proclaim the Lord's death" - the past

"until he comes" - the future.

The Eucharist always brings together the past, the present, and the future. What does this mean? It means that we are at more than just a service of worship. We are actually in heaven, and at a point where time stands still.

In this age of instant gratification it is the here and now which is important to everyone. So receiving Holy Communion becomes the ultimate meaning for us when we gather for the Eucharist.

Today's feast points us somewhere beyond that. Because Maundy Thursday is so overshadowed with Our Lord's Passion, the Church established this feast of Corpus Christi to enable us to appreciate and celebrate the full meaning of the Eucharist in our lives. Originally this feast was first kept on the first free Thursday after Pentecost. It is now more often celebrated on this Sunday. This allows for most of the faithful to join in - and to have the wonderful ceremonies at the end of High Mass. Saint Thomas Aquinas wrote marvelous hymns for this celebration, and three of them will be sung for the ceremonies at the end of our Mass today. In addition (probably for the first time) we have herbs and flowers for the procession - a fragrant offering to the Lord.

The development of the Corpus Christi celebration was a further stage of the Church's understanding of this wonderful Sacrament.  

At the very beginning in the early Church Christians were hard pressed to explain the Eucharist. How could the bread become the body of Christ? And so it was that the Romans said these Christians were cannibals - because they ate the flesh of their dead leader.

Subsequently, the first attempt to explain the true meaning of the Eucharist and to try and develop its many mysteries was to see in the feeding of the five thousand an image of the Eucharist. You can see that in Saint Luke's Gospel this morning.

Like the priest at Mass, Jesus took the bread, said a prayer of blessing and distributed it.   Lo and behold - 5,000 people were fed from five loaves. The bread became much, much more, than what it was - just like it will this morning. So this miracle of the 5,000 became a symbol of the Eucharist in the early days of the Church.

Then of course there is the line in Saint Luke's account: "And all ate and were satisfied." Here is the ultimate meaning of this great Sacrament. The Eucharist satisfies our spiritual needs - it is not just a physical experience.

A further image of the Eucharist occurs in the first reading (Genesis 14) and Psalm 110.   Here we come across that mystical figure in Genesis "Melchisedek" - who is described as both a king and a priest.

He is a great high priest because as priest he blesses Abraham - who is called the father of faith and father of God's chosen people of the Old Covenant. If this priest blesses Abraham, Melchisedek must be far superior, and great indeed.

The Epistle to the Hebrews identifies Jesus with this man Melchisedek - particularly because of the line in Psalm 110 which says that Melchisedek is a priest forever. If Melchisedek is a priest forever then he is obviously symbolic of Jesus himself - our great High Priest who lives forever to intercede for us. Hebrews portrays Christ's sacrifice on the Cross as already prefigured by Melchisedek's offering, and relates it to the ritual sacrifices in the temple.

You note that it is an offering of bread and wine - just like at Mass. So the writer to the Hebrews brings both Jesus' sacrifice and the Eucharist into a continuing mystery. In a way we go back to Saint Paul’s declaration that our offering of bread and wine takes us into Jesus' offering of his very life on the Cross. And also that when we offer the bread and wine in the Eucharist we are proclaiming that sacrifice on the Cross. Our offering somehow gets involved with Jesus' offering - and the two become one in our worship at the altar.

Here is both great mystery and logical theology. In Anglican history this was made quite clear in the 19^th century by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, when they responded to the papal declaration "Apostolicae Curae".

In their letter to the pope they declared that Anglican priests were no different to Roman Catholic priests, and our Sacraments were no different to theirs.

And they said this about the Eucharist, as Anglicans understand it:

"For first we offer the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving; then next we plead and represent before the Father, the sacrifice of the Cross, and by it we confidently entreat remission of sins, and all other benefits of the Lord's Passion for all the whole Church; and lastly we offer the sacrifice of ourselves to the Creator of all things, which we have already signified by the oblation of his creatures".

You will recognize in this phrases found in our Book of Common Prayer, particularly in the first Eucharistic prayer of Rite 1. In this age of speed, however, we do not reflect on the full dimensions of the Holy Communion. We no doubt look forward to it, and understand we are receiving the Body and Blood of Our Lord - but do we really prepare, let alone give thanks afterwards? To be honest even your Rector grasps for a fleeting minute or two after Mass.

What about the aspect of Christ's total self-giving, which the Eucharist presents to us?   Do we think of this when the priest says "The Body of Christ"?

He gave himself for us - so we should give ourselves back to him. And the point of Holy Communion is the most wonderful moment when we can once again resolve to do that.  

When we get home, as difficult as it is, we should be different. We have not only been in the presence of the Lord, but we have received the presence of the Lord, and we have become the presence of the Lord - we can never be the same after Mass.  

So let us be like those 5,000: "They all ate and were satisified".