Communion

 Ann Voskamp talks about Communion using another word altogether, and when she speaks of it, it is always with such dreamy appreciation and gratitude. This word? Eucharist. 

We have the Eucharist every week at our home church. Placed on tables alongside the church walls, large bowls filled with wafers and juice represent the body and the blood, both given from a Savior who loved us enough then to release His flesh and pour out His blood so as to die. A Perfect Sacrifice- the only one of its kind. 

I place the wafer on my tongue and, as it dissolves, I think over the pain and the longsuffering Jesus endured- for me. I thank Him, repeatedly, and then I drink the juice, whispering even more words of gratitude. Sometimes this makes me emotional, the remembrance. 

These past few weeks have been a mix for me. I couldn't receive the Eucharist one week because I needed to get right with someone I offended. The following week, having made my peace, I stood, holding the wafer -holding His body- and I thanked Him over and over, as I do, but this time was different. It was some form of acknowledgment which confirmed in my head and heart that He gave ALL OF HIMSELF. 

This did something to me. Drinking the juice -His blood- I felt this overwhelming grace flood over me- He paid it all for me. All of Him, for all of me. 

Two weeks later, I surprised myself when, yet another revelation came to me during the Eucharist. Just as we continue to come back to the wafer and the juice, Jesus keeps coming back to us. He chooses us over and over, confirmed by the never-ending bowls filled with grace and goodness- the best of the best. 

I have been in churches where the body is represented with a piece of bread and I have shared a communal chalice with strangers in a chapel, red wine within. I have prayed over dinner tables and McDonald's Happy Meals enough times to remember that, whether a wafer or a baked potato, Jesus loved us then, and He continues to love us now. 

And then there is thanksgiving. In Ann Voskamp's latest book, Waymaker, she also stumbles across this holy reunion of the Eucharist and thanksgiving. Over and over, she speaks about this Chara joy- this cause of joy, receiving of joy, and the joy gifted to us by another- the joy of Jesus. 

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The Eucharist is the source and 

summit of the Christian life. 

The term “Eucharist” originates from 

the Greek word Eucharistic,

 meaning thanksgiving.

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The Eucharist brings us back to Him. It reminds us of the depths of His love. And yet, every day, and with every meal, He comes to us, and we remember. 

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