The Eucharist
Rudolf Frieling

Floris Books
1SBN O-86315-221-X

First published as The Metamorphosis of the Eucharist by The Christian Community in New York in about 1954.

This edition, revised by James H Hindes, published by floris Books in 1995. All rights reserved.

Contents

1 Introduction
2 The New Testament
3 Early Christian services
4 Archetypal structure
5 Pre-Christian mysteries and the Eastern Church
6 The western Mass and action
7 The Reformation
8 The Act of Consecration of Man
9 Gospel and Offertory
10 The Transubstantiation
11 The Communion

1 Introduction

On the eve of the event of Golgotha, on Maundy Thursday, Christ Jesus celebrated the Last Supper together with his disciples. He gave bread and wine and with them his 'body' and 'blood,' and charged them when repeating this to do it in remembrance of him. Out of this Last Supper has been developed the Eucharist, the ritual of the Mass. It is now celebrated by The Christian Community, Movement for Religious Renewal, in its new form, still containing the four main parts: reading of the Gospel, Offering, Transubstantiation and Communion.

The question sometimes arises: does this elaborated ritual really have any foundations in original Christianity? Is it based on the New Testament? The Protestant Church tried to keep close to the letter of the New Testament, and rejected everything which in the further course of Christendom seemed to have been added to the text of New Testament scripture.

There is no doubt that the New Testament is the basic, classical book of Christianity. Through the modern science of Anthroposophy, which is a science of spiritual knowledge, a new possibility is given to acknowledge the 'inspired' character of the New Testament writings. It is one of the tasks of The Christian Community to cultivate a new concrete understanding of the scriptures as documents of real inspiration. But we must not forget that for the first generations of Christendom the New Testament did not yet exist. The Epistles of St Paul were apparently written beginning about AD 50, the first three Gospels not before AD 60-70 and St John's Gospel not until AD 100. It was not before the end of the second century that these writings were combined into a New Testament. The canon of the New Testament was not definitely fixed until AD 393 by the Church synod at Hippo Regius in North Africa. In this process of bringing together these twenty-seven writings, which constitute the wonderful spiritual organism of the New Testament, we venerate an act of divine guidance and providence, an act of inspiration. Nevertheless the first Christian generations had to do without these writings. Instead of this they had the apostolic nearness of the Christ event, and they had the Eucharist. The Christian Church lived for a certain time without a New Testament, but it never lived without the Eucharist from the very beginning.

The Eucharist is first mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, after the experience of the Holy Spirit at Whitsun: '... they broke bread in the houses with spiritual rejoicing' (Acts 2:46). This is the first Eucharist after Holy Thursday and a first metamorphosis can be seen. The Last Supper was celebrated in a mood of leave-taking which was overshadowed by the events to come. After Whitsun a jubilant mood was experienced. The Greek word, agalliasis, means more than 'joy'; it is a kind of spiritual enthusiasm and exaltation. The Last Supper had been a farewell meeting. After Pentecost it was like a first dawn of his second spiritual coming.

From the beginning the Eucharist was never a mere repetition of the Last Supper. The latter is like a seed which now begins growing. One cannot argue against the growing plant that it is different from the seed. There is identity, but there is also metamorphosis.

The Last Supper, on the eve of Good Friday, is a kind of anticipation, a prophetic summary of the event of Golgotha. It reveals what Christ and his deed mean to man: that Christianity is not only 'doctrine' and 'ethics,' that Christ is not only a teacher and an example, but that he descended to earth as a divine being and transformed his divinity into humanity by going through death and resurrection. He transformed the 'wave-length' of his divinity into that of humanity and thus became accessible and 'communicable.' Now we are to 'eat' and 'drink' him spiritually in order to be more and more penetrated by his heavenly substance. The essence of Christianity can be seen in Christ offering himself to his followers: 'eat' and 'drink' me, take me into your whole being.

That which is demonstrated in anticipation in the Last Supper received its fulfilment through Golgotha, through death and resurrection. After this fulfilment the Eucharist is no longer the anticipation but now conveys the substantial radiation and emanation of this great deed.

During the forty days to Ascension and in the ten days from Ascension to Whitsun we do not yet hear about the disciples celebrating the Eucharist. But immediately after Whitsun they begin. At Ascension Christ grew into a new form of existence, definitely outgrowing his former Jesus-existence which limited him to a certain spot in the spatial world. In his Ascension, he weaves his original divinity together with his humanity which he took through his earthly life and death. Thus his resurrection body reaches its full capacity to be omnipresent. At Whitsun, in an act of spiritual awakening, the disciples threw off a certain spell of dullness and dream under which they had lived through the preceding weeks. It is a remarkable fact that the manifestations of the risen Christ after Easter were not yet able to induce the disciples to preach this message to people beyond their own intimate circle. With Pentecost they proved to be strong enough to do so. As Christ had overcome the last limitations and restrictions of his existence at Ascension, so the disciples overcame their limitations of consciousness and will power at Whitsun. Thus they started celebrating the Eucharist by 'breaking bread in the houses.' Christ's prophetical saying, that he would celebrate his meal 'anew in his father's kingdom' (with which he united himself at Ascension) begins to fulfil itself.



2 The New Testament

It is the New Testament which tells us about this celebration of the Eucharist 'in the houses' but it does not tell how the exact procedure was carried out. Nowhere in the New Testament do we find a complete description of this procedure in detail. The Eucharist was living in each congregation. Every Christian who was baptized took part in it. There was no need to describe what everyone knew. Concerning the non-Christian readers of the books of the New Testament there was no reason to tell them about a ritual into which they were to be initiated only after baptism. From the beginning the Eucharist was an intimate celebration 'in the houses.' It was esoteric. Therefore it was not described in public books. The New Testament contains the spiritual message of Christ and his deed, but it never was meant to be a compendium and text book of the Christian cult.

Christianity does not only consist of the 'message.' Christianity also includes the possibility to have a mystic share in this new life itself; to experience substantially the reality of Christ, and to communicate with him in an intimate contact. This sphere beyond the message, 'the real thing' itself, at which the message is pointing, is the Christian cult. It is a basic error among many Protestants to fail to see that the Christian sacramental stream of life is older than the New Testament, is independent of it, and that it has its own evolutionary laws and necessities of organic growth.

3 Early Christian services

The first Christians had two different types of service. The one was a public meeting with the purpose of preaching the message of Christ to everyone willing to listen. This public service with scripture readings, sermon, hymns and prayers followed the lines of the Jewish Synagogue service. The second kind of meeting was reserved for those who had been baptized, and was held in private homes until church buildings were built.

During the second century the two services grew together. Testimonies are very scarce because of the 'esoteric' character of the second half of the service. About the year AD 150 Justin Martyr gave some general indications concerning the procedure. The first part of the service was completely public. It was the 'message.' Everyone was welcome. Justin records that there were readings from the 'memoirs of the Apostles' (the Gospels). Then all who had not been baptized were dismissed from the service. Only the 'faithful' were allowed to stay for the further celebration of the sacrament, which, following the 'message' was regarded as 'the real thing.' At least it was a mystical foretaste of that life to which the 'message' pointed.

In the structure of the 'Mass of the faithful' outlined by Justin, one recognizes the basic main parts of Offertory, Transubstantiation and Communion. The Offertory consisted in bringing one's gift to the altar. But we should not forget that in those days the giving of material gifts carried with it inseparably the inner devotion and dedication of the soul in a kind of spiritual parallelism, in contrast to our more abstract times. The Offertory is the soul's response to the message. This provides the spiritual basis for the great Eucharistic prayer spoken by the leader of the congregation over bread and wine. According to Justin Martyr, Transubstantiation of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ was effected by this Eucharistic prayer. Then followed the holy meal, the Communion.

This structure of four main parts, the public delivery of the message followed by the intimate celebration of Offertory, Transubstantiation, and Communion is not accidental. It follows deeper necessities. The sequence of these four acts is archetypal.

4 Archetypal structure

The same archetypal structure appears in the sequence of the steps on the soul's mystic path. At first an awakening by listening to the spiritual message; then as it is described in medieval texts, 'purification,' 'illumination' and 'mystic union.' After having accepted the 'message' (Gospel reading) 'consciousness turns into conscience.' The soul becomes aware that it has to be transmuted in order to harmonize with that 'message.' A process of cleansing and purifying, and an inner elevation, have to follow (Offertory). Then the spiritual world will respond again to our response. Now it can manifest itself by transfiguring the earthly world. The world of matter ceases to be material and becomes translucent (illumination-transubstantiation). Finally man grows into the spiritual with all his being, including his flesh and blood (mystic union-communion).

Because these deeper laws and necessities of the mystic life of the soul correspond to Christ's redeeming deed, we may recognize the fourfold pattern in the very structure of his deed itself. There are the three years between the baptism in the Jordan and the event of Golgotha. They serve to prepare for the event on the hill of Golgotha.

These three years during which the Christ preaches the message of the presence of the Kingdom of God are, as it w~ere, the first main part, the great Gospel. Then Christ goes to Jerusalem to sacrifice himself on the altar of Golgotha - the great Offertory. His resurrection at Easter and the further development of his transmuted body through the forty days to Ascension Day, represent the great Transubstantiation. At Whitsun finally, his deed comes to life in the souls of the disciples. The flame of the Holy Spirit is kindled in each individuality - the great Communion. Thus the Eucharist shows in its four main parts the same structure as the series of redeeming events in Christ's earthly life as described in the New Testament.

5 Pre-Christian mysteries and the Eastern Church

The growth of the Christian cult came about differently in various countries. Ceremonies found their way into Christian sacramentalism which had their origin in the pre-Christian mysteries. In principle there is nothing wrong with this influx of pre-Christian values, as it is in a way the fulfilment of the appearance of the mysterious Magi from the East, offering their gold, frankincense and myrrh to the Jesus child. Christ is the fulfilment not only of the Old Testament but also of the old mystery religions. Concerning the values of the old pre-Christian mysteries, the word of St Paul holds good: 'all is yours' (lCor.3:22) as long as the following phrase is felt with sufficient strength; 'but you are Christ's.' Thus gold, frankincense and myrrh were legitimately adopted by the growing Christian cult.

We could compare this process of unfolding and enriching of Christian liturgy to the growth of a plant. The growing of a plant is directed from an invisible centre of forces, by a spiritual archetype. The latter is hovering above the visible plant. It causes the incoming nourishing substances to 'fill out' the dynamic lines of the inborn structure of the plant organism. Thus the plant thrives and grows. It does not become something different from the archetype. Although the plant passes through a series of metamorphoses it is not alienated from itself and does not lose its identity. Also above the historic development of the Eucharist such a living divine archetypal entity is hovering. Through the centuries the liturgical organism has received the radiations of the divine ideal so it has in the main unfolded along the lines of the spiritual archetypal structure. There is of course one great difference between the growth of a plant and something that has to do with man. Wherever man comes into the picture, there is also the shadow of his 'fall,' which means a certain alienation from his divine origin. Thus the growth of Christian sacramental ism is not only similar to the unfolding of the plant, but we may observe in it the shadow of man's imperfections. Foreign elements have crept in and have overgrown the original pattern here and there. Elements were adopted which were not sufficiently digested and assimilated. They were not sufficiently permeated by the spirit of genuine Christianity as we will see later.

The Mass developed differently in East and West. The Greek Orthodox Mass preserves many features of the ancient mysteries. The altar is invisible behind a screen -the iconostasis, the 'wall of pictures.' The priest performs his liturgy mainly in seclusion. Only at special moments do the doors of the iconostasis 'open. This happens when the Gospel is carried out in solemn procession, and later in the Offertory when still more solemnly the bread and wine are carried forth and then returned for the Transubstantiation. Only now and then a glimpse is possible through the central door. This corresponds to the era of the pre-Christian mysteries when the priest was the initiate and the people stood outside. The iconostasis represents the world of spirit-pictures, visionary pictures seen by the inner eye, as well as hiding those spiritual realities which are behind the visions. The mystic core of the Eucharist is celebrated behind the screen and is reserved for the priest. The gap between the 'mystagogue' behind the screen and the layman standing outside is stressed too much. A pre-Christian element has not been sufficiently assimilated by this form of Christianity.

The Greek Mass also preserves reminders of the original division between the public and the esoteric parts, even if only in a formal way. Before the Offertory those not baptized are solemnly dismissed. Before entering the Transubstantiation the priest calls out: 'The doors! The doors!' reminding us of the first Christian times when the doors were really locked against those who did not belong.



6 The western Mass and action

In the western Mass there is no iconostasis. The altar is visible to the congregation. But here also the congregation is too much excluded from what the priest is doing. This was not the case in the first centuries when the people stood close around the priest and understood each word. Later the priests grew more and more into a splendid but not quite Christian isolation. The Latin language, originally spoken as a living language, was preserved and in a way mummified in the Roman Church, which, unlike the Greek Church, enforced its language upon the other nations.

Furthermore, it became customary and finally officially fixed, that the 'canon,' the great Eucharistic prayer of Transubstantiation, should be recited in a low, whispering voice. Thus the congregation was excluded from the most important part and was only allowed to follow with a general feeling of devotion without being able to hear individual words.

Also in the western Church the chalice was taken from the laity and became the privilege of the priest (1415). There is still another element which is not quite in harmony with genuine Christianity; that is, the attitude of authority which imposes dogma and the commandment with blind obedience, even backed up by the power of the state where circumstances permit. Something else has happened to the western Mass. The basic idea that the Mass is an 'action' and a 'sacrifice' was more and more misunderstood in a fateful manner. From the beginning, the Eucharistic service, and chiefly the great prayer of Transubstantiation, the Eucharist proper, had the character of an 'action.' In fact, it was very often called 'actio,' and the corresponding verb was 'to make,' 'to do.' We even find the formulation: 'to make the Passion and the Resurrection of Christ.' Christ's word at the Last Supper, 'do this' was understood in a deeper sense. It was not only that the ceremony of Holy Thursday was to be repeated, but that the whole event of Golgotha -- Passion as well as Resurrection and Ascension -- was to be brought to life anew. In the Eucharist Christ's central deed of redemption became actual and alive.

This touches a deep mystery of Christianity. We see how often in practical life help given to someone in need turns out finally not so helpful. It sometimes supersedes the effort of the one to be helped, increasing his laziness and dependence on others. Great wisdom is necessary to give someone helpful assistance. This is in the highest degree the case with the deed of Golgotha. Divine providence arranged it in such a way, that it was really a constructive aid, able to arouse the utmost spiritual energy of the one to be helped. Christ's redeeming deed does not work automatically. It cannot make us holy without our conscious and willing participation. Such an automatic salvation would certainly spare mankind all its tragedies, but it would destroy man's freedom and dignity. Christ's deed has been so fashioned that it remains a dormant potentiality as long as it is not made effective and active by man's free agreement and cooperation. Man is supposed to do something in order to release the full divine energy of this deed. Without man's response it remains a latent possibility. When man responds, he becomes sensitive to the spiritual emanations welling forth from Christ's deed. The Christian grows mystically into the deed of Golgotha. It becomes alive in him. Thus man is not only the passive object but also the active cooperator in salvation. It is just through joining the mystic stream of the redeeming deed that man is himself redeemed. It is true that the deed of Golgotha was definitely accomplished and finished on a certain date, at a certain place under Pontius Pilate. But nevertheless it flows forth and continues in the supersensory world as an eternal activity generated by the event of Palestine. The spiritual guidance of the world waits for men to meet and join it.

This active sharing in Christ's deed by celebrating the Eucharist was vividly felt in the first Christian centuries. But because of the lack of real esoteric insight this feeling ('whenever we celebrate the Eucharist we make Christ's death and resurrection') could not be expressed in clear conceptions. We might think of a stone which falls into the water. It stirs up ripples which go out from the centre in continuing undulations. Something like that happened in the supersensory world when Christ accomplished his deed. It was a historic fact fulfilled on earth once and for all, and it released an 'undulation' in the higher worlds. Its 'waves' can be received by means of the mystic instrument, the Eucharist. Without this insight the conception of the Eucharist as a repetition of Christ's deed faces the danger of becoming less and less understood. This is what happened in the Roman part of the Church. The idea that the Church was entrusted with the tremen4ous privilege to 'repeat Golgotha on the altar' in time became something like 'a means of power.' Human egotism came in. In the Roman West (not in the East) it became a custom to use this spiritual means of power for certain concrete purposes which brought the Eucharist down to the level of buying and selling. A wealthy personality could have a hundred Masses celebrated for his special benefit - something not done for the poor. It was a real disaster that this wonderful institution, the Mass for the dead, which had from early times been used to help the departed souls, was drawn into the vortex of financial buying and selling.



7 The Reformation

It is no wonder that this fateful development which profaned the Mass produced the great reaction of the Reformation. It was tragic that this powerful reform movement lacked esoteric knowledge of the mysteries of Christianity and was thus bound to fall short of the mark. The reformers saw the commercialization of the Mass but in their opposition went too far and 'threw the baby out with the bath water.' They understood that the Catholic priest pretended 'to repeat the event of Golgotha on the altar' (that is spiritually). They could only think of Christ's deed as a historic fact, but without any knowledge of the continuation of the mystic stream released by the original historic event. Thus they could not see how the deed of Golgotha comes to new life every time the Eucharist is celebrated. They were bound to think it a sacrilegious presumption to put this sacramental action alongside Christ's unique and all-sufficient deed. They could not see the mystical relationship between that deed and the altar. Finally, when they saw the growing commercialization of the Mass for the departed they rejected the Mass in its entirety as sacrilegious and idolatrous.

The reformers tried to get back to the original sources of Christianity, but they knew no other source than the Bible, which they approached without any esoteric understanding. They did not become aware that the sacramental stream of Christianity is older than the New Testament and developed independently of it. Thus they necessarily fell short when they tried to build up a communion service exactly along the lines of the scriptures. The result was, that the Protestant service consisted chiefly of that which was the first part of the Eucharist (the public service) with scripture reading, hymns, prayer and sermon, to which now and then is added the Communion, the fourth part; leaving out the Offertory and Transubstantiation. In this way the wonderful structure of the Christian Mystery was destroyed.

8 The Act of Consecration of Man

The Act of Consecration of Man, as it is celebrated in The Christian Community can be looked upon as a sort of 'reincarnated' Mass, newborn in our modern age. The supersensory pattern and archetype which had hovered above the evolution of the Eucharist through the centuries manifests itself again with new evidence. In the Act of Consecration of Man the four main parts are articulated with full clarity. It cannot be the ideal to copy exactly the ceremonies of the first Christian centuries. This would deny the immanent meaning of the progress of time. Attempts to copy golden ages of the past usually lead to caricatures. We have to be Christians of the twentieth century. Of course this does not mean that we have to indulge in the materialistic errors and excesses of this century. The twentieth century, like every other epoch, has not only its special shadow, but it also has a divine possibility of its own.

The Act of Consecration of Man speaks through modern language. It contains formulations of thoughts which were not yet possible in the liturgical dictionary of the early Church. For instance, it speaks in quite a new manner about the mysteries of the course of the year. The number of liturgical colours is considerably enlarged. The course of the year, spiritually experienced, is something which can bring us into contact with the living Christ wielding in the sphere of the etheric life forces. This new great insight, that the earth is a living organism (an insight which we owe to Anthroposophy, together with other esoteric wisdom) found its way into these modern liturgical texts. They speak in a new way of sun, stars, rainbow, clouds, air, and of the breath of the earth.

9 Gospel and Offertory

The first main part, the Gospel reading, is now based upon a new understanding of the scripture.

The second main part, the Offertory, is conceived on the basis of a new understanding of the meaning of sacrifice. The objection is heard: 'How can we offer anything to God when everything belongs to him in any case?' It is true that everything belonged to him originally. Our souls were also at one time with God, and belonged to no one else. But God himself gave the privilege of freedom and independence to man. It is not our merit and doing that our self can exist as an independent being. It is God's highest gift that he sets us free as individualities, but this highest privilege involves of necessity highest risk and danger. The highest mountains have the deepest abysses. We can make the wrong use of our independence and thus cut ourselves off from our divine origin. This did happen to a certain extent. Man is in the habit of taking it for granted that his 'self and the faculties of thinking, feeling and willing are his own absolute property. Man will not find his salvation without acknowledging that his 'self with its faculties is entrusted to him by God. He is expected to unite his gift of freedom with the divine aims voluntarily. Is there then anything that a man can give to almighty God? The answer is yes; but how can this be possible? As far as our human freedom is concerned it is a result of God limiting his own omnipotence in our favour. To each individuality he gave a share in his own creative privilege of freedom and he expects us to make the right use of it. It is not a dogma but a fact of everyday experience that my 'self,' poisoned as it is by egotism, does not belong to God. Although the 'self originated in God it has taken on such qualities that it has alienated itself from its original owner. The religious act of offering therefore means that I try to place my 'self ' with its faculties at his disposal. The more I try to do this, the more I become aware how difficult it is. Yet as we seek to offer our inner activities to the Christ week by week, we can experience some progress. This is the inner path along which we are led in the Offertory of the Act of Consecration.


10 The Transubstantiation

The third main part, the Transubstantiation, can best be understood as a spiritual reality, although this is not stated as dogma to be believed blindly. In the first centuries, the Christians had no doubt that the Eucharist was more than a symbol. As Justin Martyr says about the bread and wine:

'For we do not receive them as ordinary food or drink, but as by the word of God, Jesus Christ our saviour took flesh and blood for our salvation; so also, we are taught, the food blessed (literally: eucharistized) by the prayer of the Word which we received from him, by which through its transformation our blood and flesh is nourished, this food is the flesh and blood of Jesus who was made flesh.' Here we find the conviction that through the recitation of certain words of prayer, bread and wine become something more than just natural things. This was never in doubt through eight centuries of Christian life. No special doctrine or dogma was needed, because there was still a number of people who were clairvoyant to a certain degree. These people had the first hand experience of a real, spiritually visible happening during the service. They saw the host (bread) in a sun-like aura that radiated a spiritual light when it was elevated at the altar. This old power of natural clairvoyance gradually faded through the centuries, especially in the western part of the Church where the intellect was developing more strongly than in the East. The abstract intellect destroyed the old faculty of natural inborn clairvoyance. Thus we see the first struggle and doubts about the reality of the Eucharist starting in western Europe in the ninth century. In 1215, Transubstantiation was made an official dogma of the Roman Catholic Church to protect the Church against the inroads of intellectual doubt.

The reformers took the Eucharist more or less as a mere symbol, with the exception of Luther, who had a dim feeling that it is more than a symbol. It is interesting to note that in 1673 the English Parliament passed the 'Test Act' which make it obligatory for anyone aspiring for public office to declare by oath that he did not believe in Transubstantiation. The fight between Catholicism maintaining the dogma and the Protestants denying it, led to a stalemate. Neither side had an esoteric understanding of the problem in question.

In our days, Anthroposophy gives us a new approach. Through it we learn that 'body' and 'blood' are not only material things. Tangible matter makes our body visible, but apart from this, the body is a spiritual structure, a field of formative forces. The spiritual organism that penetrated the body of Jesus, and manifested itself to the Apostles after the Resurrection, can be mystically transferred to those who bring their inner life into harmonious contact with the living Christ. In the same way his blood can be transferred to us, not as material substance, but as the streaming power of glowing spiritual love which permeated the blood of Jesus. The body and blood of Christ are not material substances, neither are they mere symbols, but are real supersensory forces which are needed in the development of the inner man, and which we can really meet.

On the other side, bread and wine are not found by chance in the central act of Christian worship, since both of them have a long cultic and cultural history connected with them. Bread and wine are substances in which the earth comes nearest to the spiritual quality of the body and blood of Christ, which means that bread and wine have a speciai capacity which enables them to become the earthly bearers of the heavenly body and blood of Christ. Body and blood are related to bread and wine with a kind of predestined affinity, and are brought together through the spiritual power of the Eucharist. When the Eucharist is celebrated with sincerity, devotion and vigour the awareness of the presence of the living Christ can be strengthened and condensed to such a degree that, not only do his spirit and soul weave in the spiritual atmosphere of the Sacrament, but they are able to work in the sphere of body and flesh through descending into the life forces of bread and wine. (Non-alcoholic wine is used in the Act of Consecration of Man).

This new way of thinking about Christ's body and blood and their relation to bread and wine does not mean a new dogma. A dogma is truth which is thought to be in principle beyond human insight, and which is therefore imposed by an authority and accepted in blind belief. As soon as a spiritual truth can be approached with free insight, it need no longer be a dogma but becomes more and more an experience. It is left to members and friends of The Christian Community to decide how far they wish to go in making friends with these new conceptions offered to them. How far to grow into the experience of the supersensory reality in the Eucharist is a matter which lies with each individual.

11 The Communion

When Communion, the fourth main part, is preceded by a real Transubstantiation, where bread and wine become carriers of higher forces, it becomes something which is more than a symbolic act. It cannot be understood without the three preceding steps. Communion through eating bread and drinking wine would be rather trivial if it were not that there had been the listening to the Gospel, the inner activity of offering, the response of the spiritual world in the Transubstantiation. The Communion becomes the climax of a developing process. The elements become the expression and the carriers of highest spiritual experience, where the activity of the Spirit draws so near that it touches not only our soul and spirit, but also our body and blood. As we say about experiences that go deeply, they penetrate into the flesh and blood. Then the human body is inwardly restored to its pristine purity.

The chalice is not withheld from the congregation as has been done in the Roman Catholic Church since 1415 until recently. Today it can be understood that the bread in the service bears the 'body' of Christ and conveys different forces than the wine. The wine bears other forces, the 'blood' of Christ, and therefore should not be withheld.

The best preparation for Communion would be to work with utmost attention and devotion through all that precedes Communion. No one is excluded by a foreign language or by the inaudible whispering of the priest. The chance is given to enter with all spiritual energy, including thinking, into that which goes on, and to take part in it actively. This active inward participation of those attending the service can effect an important enhancement of that which is brought about spiritually by the service.

These are then some indications that in the Act of Consecration of Man, the Eucharist has reached a metamorphosis which manifests its divine archetype. It overcomes the sterile stalemate in the hopeless and fruitless struggle between Catholicism and Protestantism. It makes the third step which is beyond both of them, but includes the real values of both. It unites the mystic depth of Christian sacramentalism with the freedom and independence of the human individuality.

The name, the Act of Consecration of Man, is a new name. The old name, Eucharist, means 'thanksgiving.' The new name suggests that man should do something himself; it indicates that the real thanksgiving which we owe to Christ is an active response to his redeeming deed, and that we should open ourselves to receive his hallowing influence. Through this influx, man who has not reached his full human stature, nor reached the goal expected by God, can be transfigured more and more into God's image. Thus our true Eucharist, our great thanksgiving for Christ's deed, is to strive toward the goal of becoming really human through the Act of Consecration of Man. Every human being can discover this if he sets aside the necessary time, week by week, year by year and learns to unite his own being with that which works through the Act of Consecration of Man.