Healing and forgiving power of the Eucharist

By: Shaila Touchton | April 12, 2017 n a Liturgy for Eucharist, given on this web site, we have the following words taken from the prayer of consecration, ... having in remembrance his blessed passion and precious death, his mighty resurrection and glorious ascension; rendering to you most hearty thanks for the innumerable benefits secured for us by the same. ... these your gifts of bread and wine; that we, receiving them according to your Son our Savior Jesus Christ's holy institution, in remembrance of his death and passion, may be partakers of his most blessed body and blood. ... most humbly beseeching you to grant that, by the merits and death of your Son Jesus Christ, and through faith in his blood, we, and all your whole Church, may obtain remission of our sins, and all other benefits of his passion. ... humbly beseeching you that we, and all others who shall be partakers of this Holy Communion, may worthily receive the most precious body and blood of your Son Jesus Christ, be filled with your grace and heavenly benediction, and made one body with him, that he may dwell in us, and we in him. ... not weighing our merits, but pardoning our offenses, through Jesus Christ our Lord; ... As we consider these passages we may note that there is a direct connection between the remembrance of "his blessed passion and precious death, his mighty resurrection and glorious ascension" on the one hand, and on the other hand, the "innumerable benefits secured for us by the same." These "innumerable benefits" include being "partakers of his most blessed body and blood," "remission of our sins, and all other benefits of his passion," being "filled with your grace and heavenly benediction, and made one body with him, that he may dwell in us, and we in him," and the "pardoning our offenses, through Jesus Christ our Lord." This connection is also made in Isaiah 53, that is, by virtue of Jesus' suffering we receive all the many blessings . These blessings are, however, as Isaiah 53 makes clear, intimately connected to Christ's suffering, or, as the eucharistic liturgy proclaims, the blessings are related to the remembrance of "his blessed passion and precious death, his mighty resurrection and glorious ascension." That is, the blessings require us to remember his passion, where "remember" is understood in the strong biblical sense as studied in the essay, In Remembrance of Me. As believers come forward to receive his body and blood in the Holy Eucharist, as they open their hands to receive his broken body, they receive the benefits of his passion, and one of those great benefits is healing. The whole person and the community itself are healed. The individual is healed, body and soul, and all relationships within the community are healed as well, empowering the local church to effect the Kingdom of God in its time and place. Simply put, in Eucharist we exchange the rule of the evil one for the rule of God and thereby are set free from bondage since God's rule always entails healing. Finally, healing in the Holy Eucharist is only one of the many ways God heals. He also uses teaching, laying-on-of-hands for healing, counsel, service, kindness, and above all, love, to heal. Many times people are not able to receive healing in the Holy Eucharist because they have not been taught to expect healing there. Also, there are many who come to Holy Eucharist whose hearts have been so abused and broken that they cannot receive the love of God in the Eucharist. To them the words take no root, the rite seems empty, mere formalism. Such people, and this will be all of us at one time or another, often need the counsel and ministry of persons especially called to healing. Eucharist is a very powerful way to consistently receive blessings and healing from God. On the night that He was betrayed, Jesus ate His last supper with His disciples. And knowing what He would accomplish through His sacrifice, He instituted the Holy Communion (Luke 22:19–20, 1 Corinthians 11:24–25). His loving instruction is that we are to remember Him as we partake of the Holy Communion. Jesus wanted us conscious of how His body was broken for our wholeness, and His blood was shed for the forgiveness of our sins. And whenever we partake in this consciousness, we “proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26). Today, when we partake of the bread, we are declaring that Jesus’ health and divine life flows in our mortal bodies. And when we partake of the cup, we are declaring that we are forgiven and have been made righteous. Jesus’ blood gives us right standing before God, and we can go boldly into God’s presence (Hebrews 4:16). When we pray, we can be sure that God hears us! Category: prayers Tags: Healing and forgiving power of the Eucharist