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“This is my body, This is my blood.”
Matthew 26:26-28
New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
The Institution of the Lord’s Supper
26 While they were eating, Jesus took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said,
“Take, eat; this is my body.”
27 Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, saying,
“Drink from it, all of you; 28 for this is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
I have been a priest of the Episcopal Church. I have a special devotion to the Holy Sacrament of the Altar, the gifts of Bread and Wine consecrated to be, for Christ’s followers, His Body and Body. This is partially because some eight years ago a certain Bishop, with the stroke of a pen, took away from me forever the privilege of offering the Sacraments in the Church. (It is a long story, some of which was my fault.) The loss of this privilege so dear to me sometimes (as now) causes me to reflect upon the loss of Sacramental experiences in the Church at large, in this case, the loss of the experience of the Common Cup at the Holy Eucharist. This loss is already ancient in the case of certain Catholic Churches. It began some years ago and is growing even now in the Episcopal Church (Anglican) and many mailine Protestant denominations.
In the Episcopal Church the practice of Intinction (dipping the bread wafer ever so slightly into the chalice of
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Intinction: Dipping the Bread into the Wine, to avoid drinking from the cup
wine) has always existed. But the practice began to grow a couple of decades ago when our culture began to be obsessed with germs, disease, and the fear of “catching something” from one another. We chuckled when the medium was doorknobs. We began to accept it when the medium was public toilets. Now there are anti-bacterial handiwipe dispensers everywhere, and most Christians no longer share the Common Cup with one another.
Drink from it, all of you.
This denial of the Common Cup is especially curious when we remember that one of the key theological determinants of a Sacrament is that is is an action instituted by Christ. We do not use a chocolate bar, because Christ used bread. We do not use lemonade, because He used wine. But where He said, “Drink from it, all of you,” there we fail. We fail not because we misunderstand the Scripture account, nor because we think this detail unimportant, nor because we have thoughtfully and intentionally revised our Sacramental Theology. We fail because our fear has come to outweigh our faith.
Some would ask, “But we are still consuming, in the community of others, the same wine. So where is the problem?”
The Sacraments are rich in symbolism. And a symbol is a way vividly to experience something that is otherwise hard to explain. And this is true of the Common Cup. It is not only the partaking of the wine made life-blood of Christ. It is not only taking part together in the same event. Christ is not divided! Drinking from the Common Cup is an expression of essential union with one another. I drink from the same cup as you, because you and I are One in Christ! And this unity in Christ enables us to be willing to touch one another, to taste together, to touch our own lips to the chalice rim already touched by another’s. A willingness not to be repulsed by the thought of someone else’s “germs.”
This experience of the Common Cup does not express well as a rational theory. Unfortunately, we tend to debate it on that level. (One person says, “In this modern era we know more about communicable diseases. What was an important part of our common experience we now see as dangerous.” Another says, “Did you know the hands are dirtier than the mouth, and we spread more germs by dipping than by drinking?”) But this problem will never be resolved by rational debate.
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“Drink from this, all of you.”
It will never be resolved by rational debate, because the true experience of a Sacrament takes place in the heart. Unless we truly understand this, truly realize and feel what goes on within the deep, non-rational core of our being, we can never call to our awareness the full implications of our decision not to share the Common Cup with our brothers and sisters. We cannot avoid those implications, for they will stir within us, touching our emotions in ways that are powerful even when unacknowledged. When we avoid the Common Cup we are saying in our rational thought, “I am being responsible in avoiding the spread of germs.” But in our heart (usually unacknowledged) we are say, “I am discounting the words of Christ, and rejecting my neighbor on the deepest level of relationship. I will not drink from the Cup she/he just drank from, because I am afraid, and so I am isolating myself from him/her.” And in that deep emotional awareness we are aware that we are in fact NOT “One in Christ,” for we have rejcted one another at the deepest meaning of Incarnation.
Please do not take my word for this. If it has been a long time since you have drunk from the Common Cup at Communion, do so each Sunday for the next six months. And see how you feel, as well as what you think.
And please feel free to reblog this article.
~ Will, ObJN
Filed under: My Thoughts, Theology Tagged: Christian, common cup, communion, Eucharist, intinction, unity Image may be NSFW.
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