Meaning
of the Lord's Supper
A definition of sacraments by
Augustine is 'visible signs of an invisible grace'. The Bible does not provide a definition of a sacrament. In the
New Testament, the Greek word mysterion later translated in the Latin by
sacramentum. Since the 13th century,
the number has been set at seven in the Roman Catholic and Eastern
Churches. The Reformation churches
reduced the number and counted baptism and the Lord's Supper as the most
important. The basic principle of the
sacrament is that it points beyond itself to the divine reality.
Grace, in relation to sacraments,
is the free gift of God's love made in Christ, especially in his death and
resurrection. Christ is the mediator of immediate grace and he is the
visibility of invisible grace. In the Patristic period, and above
all in the Middle Ages, grace came to be conceived in a much more mechanical,
almost a semi-material way, as a mysterious substance which is poured into the
soul of believers, enabling them to achieve what by nature they could not
achieve. But the Protestant Reformers
understood the grace of God in terms of love and favour.
The term 'opus operatum' pre-dated
the Council of Trent. It exerted a
strong influence on the medieval concept of sacraments. From the time of Trent, however, it became a
hallmark of religious polemics between Catholics and Protestants. Every
Catholics from this time onward learned that the sacraments produce or
effect grace 'ex opere operato'. In
opposition to this slogan, Protestants raised their own slogan of 'Sola Fidei'.
The traditional Roman Catholic view
in regarding the presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper is transubstantiation
(a special real presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper). Luther rejected the traditional
Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation and presented emphatically objective
and realistic view of consubstantiation (Christ is present not just spiritually
but also bodily). The Calvinist (Reformed) tradition
agrees with Catholics and Lutherans in affirming the real presence of Christ,
but it emphasizes that Christ is received by faith through the uniting power of
the Spirit (Christ joins us to himself by the grace and power of his Spirit).
The Lord's Supper is a proclamation
of visible Word, and a human act in response to God's calling into the church
of Christ, and empowerment for its mission in and for the world. If baptism is the sacrament of the
foundation and the beginning of Christian life in God's grace, the Lord's
Supper is the sacrament of the sustaining and growth in Christian life by that
same grace. If baptism is the gift of
God's love that welcomes us into the body of Christ and confirms our solidarity
with Christ and with others, then the Lord's Supper is God's continued sharing
of life and love that gives strength to the new community and motivates it for
service in the world.
The centre of the Lord's Supper is
the free grace of God in Jesus Christ who was crucified and resurrected for the
salvation of the world. The Lord's
Supper mediates the Spirit and the power of the resurrection. As a messianic mediation, the feast
strengthens and preserves the freedom of faith, the courage of hope and
fellowship of love. According to the above mentioned
principle of the sacrament, the bread and wine in the Lord's Supper point
beyond themselves to the body and blood of Jesus Christ. We can have communion with God and receive
God's grace through visible element of bread and wine. Therefore the Lord's Supper is a visible Word
of God by means of invisible grace of God, enacted testimonies to the love of
God and Jesus Christ.
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