Let's Have Communion about Communion!

I have been thinking a lot this week about "communion," which many Christian denominations take every week and others take only a few times a year. It has been generally tied to the symbolism of the bread and wine which Jesus gave to his disciples the night before his crucifixion. I've always known the word "communion" to have a higher meaning than just the symbols of bread for body and wine for blood.

I have been thinking about communion as symbolic in general, and not something confined to Sunday Mass or a special once-a-month (or less frequent) service; true spiritual communion (which everyone claims to locate for themselves) can be achieved whenever we want.




Paul writes in II Corinthians: "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all." (13:11) The Holy Ghost is a spiritual concept - divine Science, or the Comforter, of which Jesus promised to us when he ascended. We, as mortal beings, cannot have a communion with a spiritual concept. But this blessing indicates that the Holy Ghost is present with us, here and now and always. It is not contained in a church building or within the time frame of a Sunday church service.

But how do we have communion? A couple of definitions of "communion" are "association; fellowship;" and "an interchange of sharing thoughts or emotions; intimate communication." In this statement from Paul, he is addressing the Corinthians' "association" with the Holy Ghost. How do we associate, and then intimate communicate, with a purely spiritual idea? We pray. We pray to know that we, as children of the infinitely spiritual God, are spiritual beings and can "commune" - associate with, and share our thoughts with - the Holy Ghost (also known as the Christ), simply by praying.

We can have communion every day, every hour, every moment. Every instance in which we express God, good, in our lives, we are communing with God and the Christ - we are associating with Him. And really, we have no choice BUT to associate with Him, because he made us in His image and likeness (see Gen. 1:27) and there is no other power but God, so there is no power available to change us from being his expression ("spittin' image," as the saying goes).

You don't need bread or wine. Just a desire to express God's goodness. And every expression is a moment of communion with God, your Father-Mother Creator.