One Bread One Body - Jesus in the Assembly

This is the second of my two posts on Frank Sheed.  In Theology for Beginners (London, Sheed & Ward 1958, Ann Arbor, Servant Books 1976, 1981)  Sheed says that John chapter 6 is Jesus' "first promise"  of the Eucharist.  Theology for Beginners at 160.  That's why in his discussion of this sacrament he starts with a reflection on that chapter, and then brings in the rest of the NT teaching on the subject.   From the beginning - at the last Supper on the night before he died and then in the worship of the early church - believers have experienced the Eucharist with others.  We approach Jesus together  in the Eucharist as the mystical body of Christ. It is a collective and not just an individual experience of the presence of God.


Yes, anyone who has been catechized is already aware of such teaching.  But I know many who believe that they can skip church as they see fit and still call themselves Christians, and I know others who are fervent believers but  who are trying to 'go it alone' with Jesus.  As for me, I walk into church and I give barely a thought to this mystery, that Jesus present  in the Eucharist happens while Jesus is present in the assembly.  These quotes from Sheed are broader than my issue of  'Jesus in the Assembly,'  but for me as I am reflecting today on the 'lone ranger' Christian,  the scripture which he discusses here is all about that issue.     

Here is Sheed describing the reaction of Jesus' followers to the 'bread of life' message in John chapter 6:

Needless to say, all this [the command to eat his body and drink his blood]  meant nothing whatever to those who heard it first. For many, it was the end of discipleship. They simply left him, probably thinking that for a man to talk of giving them his flesh to eat was mere insanity. When he asked the Apostles if they would go too, Peter gave him one of the most moving answers in all man's history: "Lord, to whom shall we go?" He had not the faintest idea of what it all meant; but he had a total belief in the Master he had chosen and simply hoped that some day it would be made plain.   Theology for Beginners, at 159. 

Jesus now offers us a union with himself in the Eucharist, which is closer than his followers had during their time with him in his earthly ministry: 

What Our Lord was giving us was a union with himself closer than the Apostles had in the three years of their companionship, than Mary Magdalen had when she clung to him after his Resurrection. Two of St. Paul's phrases, from 1 Corinthians 11 and 10, are specially worth noting:

"Whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord"; and "We, being many, are one bread, one body, all that partake of one bread"- a reminder that the Eucharist is not only for each man's soul but for the unity of the Mystical Body.  Theology for Beginners, at 160 (emphasis added).

(I don't have space here to discuss the important  issue of  unconfessed sin -  taking the Eucharist "unworthily" -   which is raised by this quote from St. Paul.)

At the communion song when we worship together  we sing that we are 'one bread, one body.'  But do we really believe that?   Too many Christians believe that they can achieve a felt union with Jesus by way of determined  individual study and contemplation.  If  John chapter 6 were the only words of Jesus on the Eucharist we too would be like Peter was after hearing this, with "not the faintest idea of what it all meant" (page 159),  and with such limited understanding  we might try to find Jesus by going off on our own.  But the words of Jesus which were written down many years before the Gospel of John, in the other Gospels and by St. Paul,  shed more light:


There is no hint that [after John chapter 6] Our Lord ever raised the matter again until the Last Supper. Then his meaning was most marvelously made plain. What he said and did then is told us by Matthew, Mark, and Luke; and St. Paul tells it to the Corinthians (1 Cor 10 and 11). St. John, who gives the longest account of the Last Supper, does not mention the institution of the Blessed Eucharist; his Gospel was written perhaps thirty years after the others, to be read in a church which had been receiving Our Lord's body and blood for some sixty years.  Theology for Beginners, at 160 (emphasis added). 


It  helps to picture this scene of the early church believers who received the Eucharist while assembled together.  To grow close to him, don't just hole up alone with your Bible.  Go to Sunday worship where you will find  Jesus present  with your brothers and sisters, and receive his body and blood in the sacrament.  If you are homebound  your church will have someone who will take communion to you and pray with you as you take it.