This week a friend of mine, Brother Thomas, a Benedictine Monk sent me a gift of a Catholic Rosary. He ordered it through christiancatholicshop.com. After I received my gift, I began reading christiancatholicmedia.com. I ran across an article that I feel I should respond to. It’s called Unfamiliar Christianity-What Protestants are Missing.
In the article, it says “They [Protestants] are missing Christ in the Eucharist also known as Communion. The Sacrifice of the Mass Instituted by Christ our High Priest and can only be celebrated by a Priest with authority of Christs Church.”
So on Facebook I commented “Speaking as a protestant, I can tell you that our communion is not missing Christ. We do not celebrate communion weekly because it becomes mundane and loses it’s meaning. I certainly wish that we celebrated more often than once a month or even once a quarter, but you can hardly say that we are missing Christ.” Today while speaking with Father Thomas, I went to show him my comment; and it is gone. It is not on the Facebook post. So I decided to write about how, we, Methodists see the Sacrament of Eucharist/Communion.
First, let’s look at how the author of the article looks at Communion. Catholics view this as the literal Body and Blood of Christ in the form of Bread and Wine, not a mere symbol or spiritual sign. It is both Biblical in the readings of the Last Supper, Road to Emmaus and others and also historical, written by the first Christians on how to celebrate this Sacrifice as handed down by the Apostles.
Given this information I can see where he [the Author] believes that Protestants have an unfamiliar Christianity.
The protestant church, and Methodist in particular use words like Holy Communion, Eucharist and Lord’s Supper. Each of these places emphasis on a particular view of the spiritual nourishment of this ritual celebration.
Holdy Communion focuses on the holiness of the gathering and sharing as the body of Christ. Eucharist, from the Greek for “Gratitude” emphasizes giving thanks as Jesus gave thanks for the bread and wine and the term Lord’s Supper, refers to the last supper as he recalled it (1 Corinthians 11:20, 23-26.
Just as in the Catholic church, Holy Communion is important because it is a time when we encounter Jesus Christ. Gayle Felton says “Christ is present in ways we simply can not explain.” To me that is saying more than the explanation of transubstantiation. For Methodists, and I am sure other protestant denominations, and I hope within Catholicism also, Holy Communion is a place of grace, it’s a place of forgiveness. In our liturgy for Word and Table the first thing we do is pray for forgiveness of sins. We confess to almighty God that we have not loved even Him with our whole hearts, we have failed to be obedient and have not done His will. We have broken His law, rebelled against His love, have not loved our neighbors as we should and we have not hear the cries of the needy. We ask for his forgiveness.
Even in our time of silence, we continue to pray for particular sins and we even ask God to be with us there in those holiest of moments. We invite his Holy Spirit to be present. Now I am sure this is where many Catholics would say “That’s right you invite his Holy Spirit, we invite Christ.”
Going over the liturgy with Father Thomas he asked me “What is said when you are handed your wafer?” I quickly corrected him and said “Kings Hawaiian bread!” (I have to say we laughed)…I showed him our liturgy and said “The Pastor presents the bread to the person, and says “The Body of Christ, given for you.” Father Thomas then asked “How do you see that wafer, is it literally the body of Christ?” Knowing the answer to his question was to be “No.” I explained how I see the bread and wine. “While I do not see the bread and wine as literal flesh and blood, I do see them as the very presence of Jesus in that moment.” Evidently this was an answer that no Protestant has ever given to Father Thomas. He was impressed.
The second way that Methodists see (or should see) Communion is as for for our spiritual journey. John Wesley once said “This is the food of our souls; this gives strength to perform our duty and leads us on to perfection.” Now Catholics don’t see it as spiritual nourishment; but it is. It is our way of drawing closer to Christ.
Thirdly, when we receive Communion, it transforms the receiver. It puts us in touch with God and then He is able to make us into who He wants us to be. Fourth, communion is a time of reconciliation. It’s a time when God draws us closer to Him. He is reconciling us to Him, He is reconciling us to each other and it doesn’t stop just to those within the four walls of the church, but around the world.
Lastly, Communion prepares us and propels us into Mission. It provides us grace to be able to share Christ’s love with the world.
Articles like the one on christiancatholicmedia.com does more harm than good. It keeps the body of Christ separated instead of trying to see the relationship between both Protestants and Catholics. Luckily, I am not the only person who thinks that focusing solely on the differences can do more harm than good. Dr. Mindy Makant, assistant professor of religion at Lenoir Rhyne University, a Lutheran school in Hickory, N.C., states in an article from Oblate School of Theology, “We are called to be in unity with one another for the sake of the world, with the United States more divided politically than ever, many Christians believe it’s absolutely critical that Christians stand together. For 450 years after the Reformation, Protestants – particularly Lutherans – celebrated the schism; but for the past 50 years, we’ve been able to stop seeing schism as something to celebrate and instead to see it as a wound to be healed…we can honor the gifts that have come out of the Reformation without celebrating it as a schism,” she explained.
What the author of the “Unfamiliar Christianity” article doesn’t realize is that Holy Communion is the same for everyone—it is the great mystery that is summed up in “Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.
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