I recall seeing a photo of a priest giving communion to a boy, with the caption announcing \u201cFather M. communicates members of the choir.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0This is one of those anachronisms, along with \u201cbewailing our manifold sins and wickedness\u201d and \u201cwe are very members incorporate in the mystical body\u201d that endeared me to old style Anglicanism.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I find it most interesting that an archaic use of the word \u201ccommunicate\u201d is to participate in communion.\u00a0\u00a0The Latin root \u201ccommunicare\u201d means to \u201cmake common\u201d, something that can be applied both to disseminating information and to disseminating the sacramental bread and wine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In communion God does indeed speak to us. When we communicate, or eat the body and blood of Christ, God speaks into our hearts.\u00a0\u00a0He tells us of His great love\u2014of His \u201cgoodness and favor towards us\u201d (another great phrase from the old prayer book).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Communion is like an appointment.\u00a0\u00a0Whenever people of faith gather in Jesus\u2019 name, he comes to us and is in our midst.\u00a0\u00a0Jail cell visits are an image that comes to mind.\u00a0\u00a0We leave the prison yard of this world, go to the booth (a church or fellowship group), and God sits down at the other side of the barrier.\u00a0\u00a0The bread and wine are like an intercom.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Someday we will be sprung from prison into a life of true freedom\u2014freedom from death, fear, sorrow, and all other mortal travails.\u00a0\u00a0For now, though, we are happy to receive the message from the other side.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
God indeed communicates with us, and what a message it is!\u00a0\u00a0As St. John gasps in his first epistle, \u201cBehold what manner of love is this! That we\u2019ve been allowed to be called children of God!\u201d (1 John 3:1, my own slight paraphrase)<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I recall seeing a photo of a priest giving communion to a boy, with the caption announcing \u201cFather M. communicates members of the choir.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0This is one of those anachronisms, along with \u201cbewailing our manifold sins and wickedness\u201d and \u201cwe are very members incorporate in the mystical body\u201d that endeared me to old style Anglicanism.\u00a0\u00a0 I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[369],"tags":[1220,1214],"class_list":["post-2999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-theological-ideas","tag-corpus-christi","tag-holy-communion"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2999"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3002,"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2999\/revisions\/3002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}