Do This For The Remembrance Of Me

Jesus knew one of our biggest problems was we can’t remember things. We have amnesia. He gave us the Eucharist to remind us of His Word when He said to do this FOR the remembrance of me. The Eucharist is a reminder to spiritually consume the Presence. We know the grace of God is inclusive, unconditional and in all of us. Our problem is we are all not always experiencing this grace.

In John 6:53, the time of the feeding of the 5,000 and the Passover in the wilderness, Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. His Disciples were deeply offended in these words. Jesus then hammered this theme of eating His Body drinking His Blood and feeding on Him eight times in these short verses. He wanted to be certain they would remember it. He then told them what it means. “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life.” Follow this theme to the time of the Last Supper when He Said, “take, eat; this is my Body” and then “This is my Blood” drink this, every one of you.

There are three things to remember when taking the Eucharist. When we receive the Eucharist remember this is not just a wafer and a cup of wine. It has been consecrated to be the Spiritual Body that is the Presence and the Spiritual blood or Life of Christ. We then need to remember the Presence of the Spirit that was in Jesus has been poured into our hearts by God. Galatians 4:6. Christ lives in us, Galatians 2:20. Col 1:27 Christ is in us, the hope of glory.

Knowing this as the truth then why do we take Communion? After all, why take something we already have? Jesus gives us the answer by saying in John 6:55-56, 55 “For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them.” This means we must eat. We have in us a lifetime of God’s gracious Love, Joy, Peace and Wisdom. We need to open our hearts spiritually to feed on His grace.

There is the story of the man who was given a lifetime of groceries. His response was thank God, now I will never be hungry or starve. He was wrong of course. He could have a life time of groceries, but if he did not eat them he would starve to death.

How do we digest the Spirit? We take it to heart. Before taking the Eucharist wonder what difference being in or out of the Presence of God’s Love makes right now in our life. Once we are reminded to eat, drink and digest at the Eucharist we need to do it on a daily basis. Do not forget to spiritually eat our daily bread