After some time the stream where he was camped dried up and
the Lord instructed him to go to the town of Zarephath where a widow would
provide for him. He approached the town in obedience and found a widow
collecting sticks. She was going to make a small fire, and cook the very last
cup of meal which she had in her house with a little oil, and after consuming
the last of the food she was resigned to death by starvation with her son. But
Elijah asked her spare a little of the meal to make him a cake as well and
promised that her store of meal and oil would not run out until the rains came
again and the crops were able to grow. She did as Elijah asked and it happened
as he had said. Her food did not run out all through the famine and drought.
God provided when there was no hope for earthly provision of nourishment.
This seems to me to also speak of
the Eucharist. Here we are gathered. Many of us with great trials and
difficulties which we bear patiently each day. The Christian life is not easy,
nor is it comfortable. To be obedient to God requires a journey into the
wilderness, and in our own ways we have all experienced this, and will expect
to continue to experience it. All hope of earthly sustenance has failed us, but
if we have faith and give over even the little we have to God then he promises
that he himself will always nourish us, whatever the situation in which we find
ourselves.
The miracles of our Lord also
foreshadow the Eucharist that he would institute for our salvation. If we
consider the feeding of the five thousand, one of the regular Gospel readings. We can see the links between this miracle and the sacrament in which we
share. The crowd is in a deserted place. Bread and fish are received as gifts,
and being offered to God they become more than they are by nature and sustain
an entire crowd of people. It is so with the bread and wine we will offer to
God on the altar. By our prayers, and the action of the Holy Spirit, they will
become more than they are by nature and will become for us a heavenly and
spiritual food.
What is the link between this
offering of bread and wine, the receiving of spiritual nourishment, and our
Lord Jesus Christ, who declares himself to be the bread of heaven. If we turn
to the account of the Last Supper we see that our Lord models for us what we
have performed as Orthodox Christians ever since. Indeed we repeat the words
from 1 Corinthians which are undoubtedly the earliest form of this service as
we come to the most sacred moments of this sacrament. We say,
1 Corinthians 11:23-26 For I
have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord
Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: And when he had given
thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for
you: this do in remembrance of me. After
the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is
the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in
remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do
shew the Lord's death till he come.
These words have been spoken on
this occasion for 2000 years. What do they mean for us? It seems to me that in
the first place we are not repeating the events of the Last Supper but are in a
true sense entering into them. And this is not surprising since the Last Supper
was not simply the gathering of a group of disciples with their teacher, but
was the gathering of the disciples with their Lord and God and Saviour. What
our Lord Jesus says and does has eternal consequences. The Last Supper is an
event outside of time and space and is the foundation of all of our
participation in the eternal Eucharist.
This passage from 1 Corinthians
shows us that the early Church understood clearly that God had brought about a
new relationship of men with God by the life, death and resurrection of Christ.
A new testament or covenant had been sealed in his blood. Just as at the
Passover a sacrifice would be made in the Temple, so they came to understood
that our Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word of God, was offering himself as
the eternal sacrifice which made redundant the sacrifice of birds and animals.
Indeed these earthly sacrifices were only ever pointing to the eternal
sacrifice of Christ which was being offered at that Passover.
The bread which he offered his
disciples was his own body. ‘This is my body’. But in offering his body he
offered and offers himself. We still offer bread and wine, and we believe that
by our prayers and the activity of the Holy Spirit brooding over us, the bread
and wine become the body and blood of Christ. This is no more than Christ
Himself teaches. It is no more than the Church has always believed. St Irenaeus
of Lyons was a disciple of St Polycarp, who was himself a disciple of St John
the Evangelist. He received from St Polycarp the Apostolic Faith and speaking
of the eucharist he says,
For as the bread, which is produced from the earth, when it receives
the invocation of God, is no longer common bread, but the Eucharist, consisting
of two realities, earthly and heavenly; so also our bodies, when they receive
the Eucharist, are no longer corruptible, having the hope of the resurrection
to eternity.
He says that the bread over which
thanks have been given is the body of the Lord, and the cup His blood. He says
that that the flesh, which is nourished with the body of the Lord and with His
blood, partakes of life. This is the teaching of the early Church. It is the
teaching of our own Orthodox Church to this present time.
Through the prayers of the Eucharist and the action of the Holy Spirit the bread and wine become Christ.
He is present in them. God comes down and makes Himself present among us, and
then allows us to consume his body and blood so that we are nourished and
sustained both physically and spiritually. They are life in us and for us. Our
true life. We are united both physically and spiritually with Christ. So that
we might continue to dwell in Him and he in us, as was first made possible in
our Baptism. Indeed if Baptism is our coming out of Egypt then the Eucharist is
truly the manna from heaven sustaining our journey through the desert. But it
is not a simple food, however miraculous. It is Christ Himself.
What does it mean to receive
Christ into our bodies and into union with our own spirit? How can a man dare
to approach the altar unless Christ Himself say, ‘Come unto me all you that are
weary and heavy laded and I will give you rest’. Unless he Himself had said,
‘Take and eat, this is my body’. If Baptism is the beginning of life with
Christ in the Holy Spirit, then the Eucharist is the means by which we
persevere in the journey. The journey is not possible without such heavenly
food, even Christ Himself. All other nourishment will fail us.
Let me urge us all to prepare ourselves
properly for this great gift. As we are united with Christ we are united ever
more closely with each other. This is especially the time and place when we
become the Church, the body of Christ. Let us be prepared, let us flee from sin
and seek holiness as far as we are able. But the strength and grace to become
holy is found only in this sacrament. Therefore we must receive to become the
people that we would wish to be in receiving it. To draw back because of sin,
if repented of, would be a mistake. That which God has provided for our
salvation must be received with faith and gratitude. Let us therefore receive
with joy and hope as soon as we are able, so that we might not only receive
nourishment, but our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Having become man for our sake,
now he offers himself to you in the form of bread and wine. May we all be
united in receiving Him, finding grace and nourishment for the service of our
Lord in obedience and holiness. May the prayer of the blind man be always on
our lips, ‘Lord, I am not worthy, but say the word and I shall be healed’.
To the glory of God the Father,
Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
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