If we receive the Eucharist worthily, we become what we receive.
~ St. Augustine of Hippo
Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. Consider the people of Israel: are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar? What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?
~ paul, The Least of The Apostles, in 1 Corinthians 10
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
~ Jesus, King of The Universe, in Matthew 5
Oh beloved, it is true.
We, in this world, and in our flesh drink the cup of demons. Politics and finance and lust and our rage and fear, drive us into a participation with death. And, if we keep drinking this, we will find ourselves outside the gates of our inheritance – and never to enter them.
However, there is a completely different way. The Way.
Now, this same Jesus has said some very difficult things. He has told us that if we don’t hate everything but Him, we cannot be His disciple. No, of course He never said to hate people. But, He did clearly say that we are to absolutely loathe any other relational solution to our problems. He will have none of it, in our calling to follow Him exclusively.
Further, He said that we are to actually gnaw and chew and feed on His very flesh and blood. And, that if we don’t, we will not have the life eternal that we seek. He is to be so very much the center of everything in our lives that He becomes our actual food upon Which we find nourishment. And even Jesus’ disciples found this to be a hard thing to bear.
Oh, it wasn’t that they didn’t understand. It wasn’t that they had downgraded His statement to some fleshly and gross cannibalistic ritual. And even still they understood the clear sense of what He was saying that we were indeed to feed on His body, and His blood.
And later, on the most holy of nights, when G_d in the flesh spoke a promise that implemented a Kingdom for the new species of human He was about to create through His Life and Death and Resurrection, Jesus made it official. His body and blood are the source and summit of the Kingdom He instituted on that night.
Can we see it?
Everything is about us becoming the very One we consume in the Eucharist. It is not about cannibalizing the life of some god, and pushing it through our gut like some sort of junk food. Rather, the infinite nature of the life we are consuming, acts to consume us – and in the digestion, transform us into something completely other.
Just like Him.
Morality is indispensable: but the Divine Life, which gives itself to us and which calls us to be gods, intends for us something in which morality will be swallowed up. We are to be re-made. All the rabbit in us is to disappear — the worried, conscientious, ethical rabbit as well as the cowardly and sensual rabbit. We shall bleed and squeal as the handfuls of fur come out; and then, surprisingly, we shall find underneath it all a thing we have never yet imagined: a real Man, an ageless god, a son of God, strong, radiant, wise, beautiful, and drenched in joy.
~ CS Lewis
Now, the Word is exceedingly clear what the destiny is for those who believe and receive the Life of Jesus into their being. The Word says that we are to be like Christ. And no, it is not that we are to be the fallen and sub-dimensional beings we are now – but cleaned up.
We are to be just like Him.
And all of this starts with our understanding that Jesus meant exactly what He said. He said that we are to abide in Him, we are to Love Him, and we to actually feed on Him, that His Life would course in both our spiritual and physical veins. For when we do, everything begins to change. We begin the journey to being consumed by Who we consume.
Tonight is your night. Time to feed on Christ.
If you, therefore, are Christ’s body and members, it is your own mystery that is placed on the Lord’s table! It is your own mystery that you are receiving! You are saying ‘Amen’ to what you are: your response is a personal signature, affirming your faith. When you hear ‘The body of Christ’, you reply ‘Amen.’ Be a member of Christ’s body, then, so that your “Amen” may ring true!
~Augustine, Sermon 272
