A place at the table
Dear People of St. Boniface,
No reading from me this week, so your Editor has asked me for Corpus Christi to tell you about what I have written on the Eucharist.
Not much, it seems! My thoughts are confined to 1 Corinthians 10 & 11, and are in response to problems in Corinth.
I remind them that they do indeed participate in the body and blood of Christ [1 Corinthians 10: 16-17]. But they cannot at the same time have a place at the table and the cup of demons [1 Corinthians 10: 21]. In other words, they cannot presume that because they come to the Eucharist they will be immune from sin and judgement, or free to sin with impunity.
Then I remind them about how to behave when they come together for the Eucharist. This was celebrated in private houses, and preceded by a meal. Unfortunately some of the house owners were inviting their posh friends to eat privately with them at a separate table, leaving the poor, the slaves, etc. to one side, in a state of embarrassment [1 Corinthians 11: 33-34]. And I remind them that they are not gathering just for a social function, but to “proclaim the Lord’s death” [1 Corinthians 11: 23-26].
Why don’t I say more about the Eucharist elsewhere? Because for the most part it is not an issue; it is taken for granted among believers – and that does not mean I am trying to downgrade it.
But, just as the complaint is sometimes heard in your time that lots of people have received Sacraments but haven’t found Jesus Christ, one of my main concerns was to show my readers what the effects of finding Christ were, thanks to the Holy Spirit. Once they had found Christ, the Sacraments flowed into them quite logically. Otherwise it was a bit like putting the cart before the horse.
You will notice that I quote the words of Jesus at the Last Supper and say that I “received them from the Lord” [1 Corinthians 11:23]. True, I wasn’t at the Last Supper, but what happened to me on the Damascus Road meant that, to all intents and purposes, I had been. And the same applies to you!
My blessing, from Heaven, PAUL.