Eucharistic Meditation, Fourth Advent

John 6:56: �He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him�E

This morning we have examined the Bible�s teaching on the mutual indwelling of the Persons of the Trinity. The Persons are distinct from each other, and not reducible to each other; the Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Spirit, and the Spirit is not the Father. Yet, they are so intimately united, and participate so full in each other, that the actions of each are the actions of the others. They are �second nature�Eto one another in a more profound way than human beings can ever be.

We have also seen how the goal of the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is to bring us, the church, into this intimate communion with the Father, Son, and Spirit. Jesus prays that �they may be in us,�Easking the Father that we believers might be joined and indwell the persons of the Trinity and that They might indwell us. God has opened up Himself as our dwelling, and makes us His dwelling.

This table is one place where this intimate communion is symbolized and realized. Through eating and drinking, Christ is given to us, and He makes His home in us, and we abide or dwell in Him. We receive Christ Himself through the Spirit at this table. As we eat His body and drink His blood, He abides in us, dwells in us, and we in Him. And when we do this together we are also coming more and more to indwell one another, and become one flesh not only with Jesus but with the whole body of Christ.

The unity manifested and realized here is not merely a �fellowship�Eof superficial chit-chat, but the profound interdependence and symbiosis shared by organs of a body. �We are one body because we partake of one loaf,�EPaul says. The unity that we ritualize at this meal is not limited to this meal, of course. This meal sets the pattern of our lives together, and we are called to dwell in each other not only here but throughout the week, sharing our lives, bearing one another�s burdens, caring for each other as Christ has cared for us.

All this makes it eminently appropriate for this meal to be called �communion,�Efor it is, in the deepest possible way, a communion in the Triune fellowship, and a communion with all those who united together in the Triune fellowship.

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Sunday, December 19, 2004 at 09:05 AM

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