The Sacrament of Love

The Holy Eucharist is the central act of worship in the majority of Christian churches around the world. There are many reasons for this. One of them is that the Lord’s Supper has traditionally been understood as a means of grace. That is to say, that through the celebration of the Eucharist and through the reception of the Eucharist (Holy Communion) you and I receive forgiveness, strength, and spiritual power from God.

We cannot love God, others, or ourselves (Matthew 22:37-39) without regularly receiving God’s love. The Eucharist is an opportunity to receive God’s love. The Eucharist brings us to the cross of Christ and there we proclaim to God, “In your infinite love you made us for yourself; and, when we had fallen into sin and become subject to evil and death, you, in your mercy, sent Jesus Christ, your only and eternal son…to live and die as one of us, to reconcile us to you, the God and Father of all” (Book of Common Prayer, 362).

The Eucharist is one way in which God pours His Holy Spirit into our “selves, our souls, and bodies” (BCP, 336). In the Eucharist we encounter in thought, word, and action, in symbol, in prayer, and in Spirit the life of Jesus. Just as Jesus’ life was “taken, broken, and given” for the sins of the world (John 3:16) so the priest takes the bread, breaks it, and gives it to the people. In the same way the life of the Christian is to be taken by God, broken by God (opening our will to God’s will), and given in loving service to our neighbors.  

The Eucharist is the sacrament of love. Love from a Christian perspective is primarily a choice and not a feeling. There will be times when receiving the Eucharist will be a powerful experience, an experience marked by stirring feelings, but there will be other times when it seems all we are doing is going through the motions, feeling nothing at all. This should not trouble us too much. Instead, we should choose with God’s help to receive the bread and wine “in remembrance that Christ died” for us and to “feed on him” in our hearts “by faith and with thanksgiving.” When we say yes to God’s love in the Eucharist Christ pours His love into our lives, regardless of how we feel.

Weekly reception has long been understood not only as the faithful duty of the Christian, but as a necessity as well. Human loves dries up without a regular refill of divine love. Every week we approach the altar of love, and indeed, the person of love Jesus Christ. As we lift our hands to receive the bread and open our mouths to take in the wine, divine love is poured into our hearts. It is not difficult to understand then, the desire in some Christian circles for daily reception of the Eucharist. Regardless of how often we receive the Eucharist we must remind ourselves that it is the sacrament of love, through which we encounter the God of love, and through which we our strengthened to obey Jesus' commandment “to love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12).