When we come to the Eucharist, the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, we come to the moment of the Cross. Not to a moment like it, but to that very moment. For in God there is only one moment, neither past nor future, but eternal. The Eucharist is not another sacrifice, but participation in the once-for-all sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
The Bread of Eucharist (“Thanksgiving”) is a real and true participation in the Body of Christ. The Cup of Eucharist is a real and true participation of the Blood of Christ. There is only one body and one Eucharist, and in that one Eucharist, that One Cup, that One Bread we have a real and true participation in the One Body of Christ.
Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all share the one loaf. (1 Corinthians 10:16-17).
Paul was speaking the language of real participation. Modern Evangelicals largely follow the philosophy of Nominalism, but neither Paul nor the Greeks nor the Hebrews nor the Christians held any such way of thinking. They understood that the reality of a thing is not found in the words or thoughts we assign to it but in the thing itself. So when Paul says that the Cup of Thanksgiving is a participation in the Blood of Christ, he is not saying that the Cup is like the Blood in some figurative sense but that the reality of the Cup and of the Blood is inseparable.
Our feelings, whatever they may be, have nothing to do with this reality. It is an impoverishment that so many today who deny the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist keep trying to wrap the Eucharist up in the language of feelings, thoughts and sentiments. If the Eucharist were nothing more than the thoughts and sentiments we bring to it — no matter how uplifting those thoughts and warm those sentiments, or how much joy or tears they generate in us — then it would be empty ritual and quite unnecessary, for there are any number of ways of generating such thoughts and feelings. The Christian faith is not about empty ritual; if we make it into that, we make it into a lie. The true gift of the Eucharist that Christ has given for us to feed upon is his Real Presence — Body and Blood.
The Bread of Eucharist does not merely generate sentiments about the Body of Christ but participates in the reality of His Body given for us. The Wine of Eucharist does not merely generate thoughts about the Blood of Christ but participates in the reality of His Blood shed for us. When we partake of the consecrated elements, we are partaking of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ — and so do we become the Body of Christ.
Christ is the Creator of all. Everything in heaven and on earth is his handiwork and reveals him. It is no wonder, then, that he would minister divine grace to us through tangible things. Indeed, through the tangibility of created matter, he ministers salvation to us. For salvation is not abstract and disembodied, separating spirit from body, but it is actually and transformative. God ministers grace to us in tangible ways and through such means as water, oil, bread and wine. These are not mere symbols but become sacramental elements through which God actually accomplishes something in us, manifesting salvation to us.
In the Water of Baptism, we are buried with Christ, baptized into his death, so that just as Christ has been raised from the dead, we too may live in newness of life, the life of Christ in us.
Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. (Romans 6:3-4)
In the Oil of Anointing, Christ ministers healing to us, just as he sent the disciples out to preach, with authority to expel demons and heal diseases. Presbyters/Priests were likewise given authority to anoint with oil for healing.
They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them. (Mark 6:13)
Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. (James 5:14)
The Bread and Wine of Eucharist have true participation in the Body and Blood of Christ, and so we, who are many, become the Body of Christ.
Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all share the one loaf. (1 Corinthians 10:16-17)
