Communion - some thoughts (2)

Just how is communion seen in Malaysia? It's a tough one to answer. I have heard how some people see the sacraments as magic infused talismans. One person told me that a parishioner wanted to take the bread back to his ill wife so she could take it and be healed. I want to laugh but at the same time, realise that behind that mistaken notion is a genuine need for people to see a manifestation of God; in whatever form, even if it is in the form of a wafer

This need is real. Even the most hardened intellectual somewhere is crying out for a display of divine presence, even if the aim is just to disprove it; a laughable notion if there ever was one. But it is real and it is because we were made in the image of something larger than ourselves.

Thus, communion can be seen as a time when the gap between us and God is closer. I have to be careful how I say this. It is the death and resurrection of Jesus that brings us into God's family and confers on us an adopted status. An act performed by laity or priesthood with some food objects and utterances is not an incantational act that miraculously brings into a 'special place', so to speak. The blood of Christ that washes your sins away gives you that status

But in a sense, it does bring us closer because each time we take the sacraments, we are reminded not only of the time in the upper room where Christ shared himself with his disciples, but a hint of foreshadowing a far greater time. A time when he would die and be resurrected forevermore. And a time when he would come again once and for all to rule over the earth in his rightful place as King Jesus

Therefore, communion is not just a celebration of an event in the past, or in the present. It is both. But it is also the expected hope of things to come and both a sad and joyous occasion wrapped into one. It is best likened to the hope of an expectant mother, anxious and waiting nervously for the child to come, thinking about the pain of labour but ultimately, every tear will be worht it and wiped away when the baby come.

So it was in Bethlehem 2000 years ago. So it will be some time in the future, but it will not be a baby that comes but a sovereign, omnipotent, just and loving King.

Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus - and take your rightful place on your throne.

SDG