I perceive that when Jesus introduced the “communion” of the bread and wine, it wasn’t so that we would remember only the person Jesus, per se, but the whole of God’s creation, the Universe, that Jesus realized he was One with, and as we can realize we are One with. It is all his “body,” including us.
It seems to me that the bread represents the body of all things, all living things, all sentient creatures, even the incarnation and flesh of Life itself throughout all of creation, even the grains and wheat and seed and plant life and growth and grinding and baking of the bread, which is Christ. We can come to realize that we are this Life in creation, not only in this particular body of ours, nor in Jesus’s particular body, but all bodies. We eat the flesh of other life, and through biochemical reactions this becomes the flesh of our own bodies, we become one with it, and it sustains the mortal life of our organism and the life of all things around us.
It seems to me that the wine represents the blood or Spirit that pervades all living things, that which nourishes and gives Life and consciousness to all things throughout all of creation, even the seed and plant growth and fruiting bodies and crushing and processing and fermentation of the wine, which is Christ. It is the minerals and nutrients of the soil, the oxygen in the air, the molecules of sustenance in the food we eat, and throughout the world around us. We can come to realize that we are this Life-sustaining force in creation, not only the blood that runs through this particular body of ours, nor in Jesus’s particular body, but all bodies. We consume these molecules, and through biochemical reactions this turns into our actual blood, we become one with it, and it sustains the mortal life of our organism and the life of all things around us.
These things have been given to us by God, the Father, the Mother, by the World, by the Universe, by the Ultimate, by Nature, by Reality itself. They give us Life. It gives all of us Life. It is one Eternal round. We eat these symbols to help us realize our oneness with Life and all of creation, even as Jesus realized his oneness with Life and all of creation. We are not separate from it, but we dwell in it and are One with it. We are It.
“He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.”
John 6:56-57
Do we properly discern this, the “Lord’s” body, even the body of all Life, even our own body and Life that is in us? Do we take upon ourselves, our own bodies and being, the name of Christ, realizing we are One with all of this creation that surrounds us and that is us? Do we remember who and what we are? When we remember it, when we realize it, when we recognize it in actuality in our consciousness, we will have the Spirit with us and in us, in abundance. We will be filled with Love overflowing, and we will know our Selves in God.
Where is the sacrifice? Where is this flesh and blood and creation laid down? Where is Christ’s sacrifice and crucifixion? I perceive that it is through the suffering and sacrifice of our own life in Life that we can come to know that we are clean, and good, and pure in this Universe, that we are Creations of this world just as the world intended that we were created, which knowledge is a conscious “remission of our sins.” We are made whole.
The Life that is within us is sacrificed every day by hard work, the sweat of our brow, and in loving and serving others. The Life that is within us is sacrificed each and every day as our body ages and we recognize that each day is one step closer to our mortal death. The Life that is within us is sacrificed as we surrender our own egoic consciousness, our self-identity and self-awareness, the natural man, the carnal mind, the son of perdition, the man of sin, the father of lies, the shadow within, our darkness, our blindness, our selfishness and pride. It is sacrificed as we submit our egoic will to the will of the Universe, when we allow it to be crucified, when we open ourselves to seeing things as they are, reality as it is, our Being as it is. And this can happen through deep prayer, meditation, and contemplation.
It happens through the sacrament of true Communion in God.